The Moldovan Connection

Moldova ranks 3rd in internet speed...

2010-05-26T11:05:00.001+03:00

... according to Ookla, whose measurement is based on those who measure their speeds. Anyway, see for yourself: http://www.netindex.com/

The UK Embassy is a Lie!

2010-05-18T11:25:00.004+03:00

I called the British Embassy in Chisinau yesterday at 3 pm as I wanted to clarify a few issues with visa applications and was "greeted" by the same answering machine as last year saying "The UK embassy is already closed. The embassy is open Monday to Thursday from 9 am to 5:30 pm and on Friday from 9 am to 2 pm". Right..... [the Hugh-Grant-from-Notting-Hill type of "right..."]

Today I tried again, at 11:20 am and got the same response. Basically, it's like they're saying "We're open but we're closed".

Way to go UK! Maybe the new Foreign Secretary will sort things out? I don't think so either.

Oh, and their English language contact page lists a different ambassador than the Romanian and Russian versions. Two ambassadors? One for those who speak English and another one for the others? Interesting...

Edit: I managed to get through after a dozen or so attempts and they said they had a problem that was now fixed. As far as I remember, last year the answering machine lied to me too. So maybe it pretended that it was fixed :)

Missent to St. Kitts

2010-05-03T01:13:00.003+03:00

I received a letter from the CFA Institute last week with some proxy materials. What struck me though was that the envelope had a stamp on it saying "MISSENT TO ST.KITTS". Now, how does a letter marked "International Priority Airmail" get missent to St. Kitts instead of Moldova, Republic Of, as was clearly stated on the envelope?

Weird insult

2010-04-16T01:23:00.002+03:00

I came across this article about Moldova today and absolutely cannot get the point of its creation. Can someone please explain why the guy made such an elaborate effort to insult the whole country? Of course we are a small and poor nation but this doesn't mean that our problems are a laughing matter. Your opinion?

Customer service joke

2009-06-12T15:30:00.002+03:00

There is a Russian joke that goes like this:

A knock at the door in the middle of the night. The owner asks who it is, and a semi-drunk voice from behind the door asks back: "Did you call a plumber at any time convenient for him?" Maybe the translation isn't funny, but it should give you the general idea.

This is what we had a couple days ago. We had problems with electricity - it would behave erratically and would shut off for longer periods of time. I called the utility (the Spanish Union Fenosa) and they said they would send someone THE NEXT DAY. My last question was to confirm that they would come during the day (I was calling after 9 pm). Imagine how surprised I was when I heard the door bell after midnight a few hours later! They came and fixed the problem very quickly. Now, I am puzzled: did I have to complain that they came at that time, or should I just be thankful that they came and fixed the problem?

Apparently, it's not the first time they act like this. When our friends had some problems with electricity they were told to wait till the next day. No one showed up so they had an independent electrician fix the problem. The Union Fenosa guys came during the night after the problem had been fixed!

And the award for worst bureaucracy goes to... the UK!

2009-06-12T14:56:00.002+03:00

Yes, that's right - UK! Living in Moldova, I have seen quite a lot of red tape and one would think that Moldova would be the most bureaucratic state, at least more so than the UK. Alas, this was not the case in my experience.

Readers of this blog will know that I wanted to take my family for a two-week vacation in London, UK. However, our vacation plans shattered after hitting the highest red tape barrier I have seen in years - the visa application process. Below is a letter of complaint I sent to the embassy after the whole thing was over, if you're interested. I hope you will agree that the new visa process is far too bureaucratic and can be significantly improved without compromising national security or causing queues.

Letter begins:
===============
I would like to express my disappointment with the general procedure of applying for visas and with the level of service of your visa staff.

Please note that this complaint is not a simple disagreement with my visa refusal. However, I believe that the cumbersome procedures and in some cases, lack of consideration of submitted documentation by visa staff, have led to a different outcome than could have taken place otherwise. I urge you to take the time to read this letter, address the problems that were incurred with your staff and forward it to the authorities in charge of setting the rules for the whole process.

First of all, one of the reasons for refusing visa to [my sister] was quoted as "No evidence has been provided to show that your parents or your legal guardians have given their written consent for your travel to the UK". However, such consent (legalised according to the legislation of Moldova) was provided and it leaves us wondering how closely the visa officer studied the documents that had been submitted with the applications.

In addition, I spoke with a visa officer on the phone on Thursday, 28 May (at least I was under the impression that I was speaking with a visa officer), and in the course of our conversation I was told to provide a letter from the person with whom we would be staying in the UK. We agreed that I would provide such letter before the visa decision would be made. However, the decision was made nonetheless, with the absence of such letter quoted as one of the reasons.

Lack of interviews with applicants leaves the visa officer to make assumptions which may not be correct. As such, I provided as evidence of funds original deposit agreements with my bank, which show that I have over [sufficient amount] USD in savings, and that all these funds will be released before the intended departure date. This amount is more than enough to make the two-week trip but this information was disregarded. Why?

In addition, in the refusal letter, air fares were quoted as £500 per person for a roundtrip Moldova-UK, quoting www.aua.com. A visit to a local travel agent will reveal that there are cheaper options available. Besides, we intended to take a much cheaper Kiev-London flight that costs less than €250 for a roundtrip (a taxi ride Chisinau-Kiev is 2000 MDL, while a night at the airport hotel does not cost more than $200 for a whole family). This visa officer's assumption is absolutely groundless and could have been easily clarified in a personal interview. Nonetheless, we still have enough funds to take the expensive Chisinau-London flight, as was demonstrated by the deposit agreements that were disregarded.

The major disappointment was the policy of zero guidance, which creates much confusion and uncertainty. Applicants are not given any advice by the embassy staff and are instead referred to the WorldBridge Services website, which does not provide much guidance either, while in some cases gives incorrect advice. Specifically, we were advised that an infant does not need a separate passport if she is registered in a parent's passport; when applying, we were told otherwise. This clearly needs addressing.

The above examples lead me to believe that the whole visa application process has become far too bureaucratic and that most misunderstandings could be easily avoided through an interview. Moreover, at least some guidance regarding the application process would be of much help to applicants. I noticed that the most detailed instructions refer to the photograph rather than to supporting documents.

This red tape makes the UK Visa institution not much different from typical Moldovan post-soviet state institutions and, no offence, looks more like a way to extort money as applicants are deprived of the right to provide any explanations and can only submit another application, paying the full fee again, in the hope that this time they got it right (and they never know until they have a decision).
==================
Letter ends.

I would like to mention that I had been in the UK before (more than once) and that this time no interview was scheduled to clear up any questions the visa staff may have had (the phone conversation I had with someone clearly didn't count for some reason even though I answered many questions). A friend of mine from the UK tried calling the embassy during their opening hours but only got the answering machine and I had the same experience once too: the answering machine tells you the opening hours so it's nothing short of a paradox!

I managed to speak to a visa assistant after getting the refusal and she couldn't tell me why the parental consent for my sister was disregarded (I seriusly doubt that they have a way to revise their decisions even if it is their fault). Also, when asked why the deposit agreements were not accepted as proof of funds, she said that it didn't say anywhere that the money was for the vacation (doh!). Moreover, the embassy wants bank statement as proof of funds, so it is basically enough to show them that you had enough money at the end of last month on your current account. What rational person would keep such amounts in a current account that earns no interest? Besides, I can always deposit the money there for a few days but that won't mean the money is mine, whereas deposits are locked for long-term and in my view provide a better proof of liquidity. When I asked what is the best way to proceed next time (i.e. what documents to include), she told me that they were not authorised to provide visa applciation advice. An email reply from the embassy (I asked a few questions earlier) told me to refer to the Worldbridge Services website (https://www.visainfoservices.com/Pages/Welcome.aspx). That contractor answers your questions (but not always giving you the correct information) and for more information refers you to the embassy!

Five years ago we simply came with applications, had an interview and collected the visas in the afternoon. This time you can't even speak to the visa officer. You have no right of appeal and you cannot amend the application if anything is missing. But you can pay €78 per person and apply again. And application processing takes 5-15 working days! This sucks big time. The worst thing is that there is no feedback mechanism - you can't complain or appeal the decision, there is no real watchdog and this all looks more like scam rather than a decent human-friendly institution.

So I propose to give the Bureaucracy 2009 award to the UK.

Moldova: how software publishers promote piracy

2009-06-12T10:07:00.002+03:00

I have been thinking about this issue for some time, but recently I have faced the problem myself.

A little introduction: I like playing computer games. I don't play many, but I have a few titles I enjoy.

In Moldova, people used to buy games and other software at the city flea market. 99% of it was pirated and I was really surprised once when I discovered that I had bought a legal version. After these sellers were removed from the flea market, the only option became retail. However, even though in retail you buy a disk (not a box as in western software retail outlets, though) with a hologram from the state agency for intellectual property protection ("AGEPI"), inside you get the same old bootleg version. And sometimes under a legitimate title you will find some crappy mod, but the box will still be carrying the hologram. So, in short, you're buying legal illegal software.

In fact, I have not seen any legitimate PC game stores in Chisinau (there may be some, but it will be an exception from the general rule). The only legitimate software you can buy will be Microsoft's Windows and Office Suite, as well as some Russian and local professional applications, like the 1C Accounting software etc.

Where does that leave people? Right, either to buy pirated version (paying a price that is below what you'll pay in the US but you can't really expect a Moldovan to pay $30-50 for a game), or go online and download the same for free from a bittorrent network, if internet is available. I can hear you say: but there are online stores that allow downloading legitimate software directly to computer! Yes, there are, and I have used Steam to buy a discounted Orange Box edition (Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2 etc.). However, there are two major issues:
1. Prices are the same that a US or EU citizen would pay (while the average salary in Moldova is close to $250 a month); and
2. Some games are not available for download in this part of the world, apparently due to some exclusive regional distribution agreements. This is the main problem I encountered: I can't buy Civilization IV online because I don't live in the US, Canada, Mexico or the UK.

Thus, the only legitimate way to play a licensed PC game in Moldova is to have someone buy it for you in a country where this is easier to do and send it over. But then you have to pay both the price of the game and shipping, which will cost as much as the game itself because you don't want to risk losing it by sending via conventional mail.

And another issue. Windows software costs significantly more than what you could pay in the US. Now, where's the logic? Is Moldova wealthier than the US? Not really! Then why is it easier for me to buy Office or Windows from Amazon and have it brought or sent here than to buy the same from a local distributor? Besides, not all versions of software are available here. Thank Amazon that they accept Moldovan bank cards.

All in all, I blame publishers for high level of software piracy here. A typical Moldovan will not have a bank card with and broadband internet connection, at least there are more people with PCs than with "fat" bank accounts and broadband internet.

As usual, Moldova was bundled into CIS distribution agreements, but no one really cares about selling this stuff in Moldova. Same goes for music, I think.

And an afterword... I tried Linux and OpenOffice to solve the issue with the high price of Microsoft products, but it didn't work for me for two reasons: games don't run smoothly on Linux and I really need the advanced features of Microsoft Office which OpenOffice doesn't support (like VBA).

Brainwashing at a new level

2009-04-23T11:54:00.002+03:00

The government (which is run by communists) has announced that they will be promoting a reduction of university admissions and an increase in technical qualifications (such as tractor drivers etc.)

This can only be interpreted as a shaping of future electorate to produce a stupid mob that can be manipulated easily through the media. The communists have witnessed the power of studentship and they don't want this class to gain in power. To give you the scale of this initiative (a translation of a news report): this year the government plans to admit 20,000 students, 5,000 less than last year. Subsequently, admissions are planned to be reduced by 5% per year to reach a cap of 15,000 admissions per year by 2014. Of course, the communists would rather have all people to be ignorant peasants living in villages with just one TV channel and one radio station, just as it has been for the past 60 years.

Reign of Corruption

2009-04-23T11:36:00.002+03:00

The constitutional court of Moldova officially approved the ballot results yesterday, despite the opposition's request to delay the decision to allow a little more time to fully process the voter lists to reveal all cases of fraud. At the moment, the opposition has gathered data on 20,000 cases of illegal voting from 25% of total votes. 20,000 votes is 1.3% of all votes. Of course, the constitutional court, which is far from being an independent institution (like all courts in Moldova), denied to satisfy this request and its decision is final and irrevocable, meaning that there are no legal means to reverse it in Moldova. If the constitutional court satisfied this and accepted all the evidence of fraud, a repeated vote would have been announced and communists would most likely be banned from participating! Of course Voronin will not allow this.

Today the European Parliament is supposed to have an extraordinary meeting to hear the opposition representatives from Moldova. I doubt that the EU will be able to change anything.

Apparently, the only way to have new elections for the opposition is to boycott the election of the president (who is elected by 61 votes in the parliament, and communists have only 60). If a president is not elected, the parliament is disbanded and new elections are held.

The prospects are very grim actually. Voronin has successfully tested a method of establishing an illegal authoritarian rule: he apparently rigged the vote; terrorised the population to give up protesting and he had the constitutional court ignore fraud evidence presented by the opposition. At the same time the communists, using their exclusive access to public TV and radio, as well as administrative resources, undertook a heavy two-week political campaign aimed at discrediting the opposition across the whole country and many have bought it. As a result, a new vote may not be in the opposition's interest for two reasons:
1. Having successfully rigged the vote, the communists will be able to do it even better next time, leaving less evidence behind;
2. Some of the voters have believed the communist lies and will grant their votes to them.

Two links

2009-04-20T16:13:00.002+03:00

Here are two Moldova-related links:
1. Moldova threatens Europe’s eastern overtures - an article by Nicu Popescu
2. Ca La Moldova documentary - a 60-minute documentary about Moldova (I haven't watched it yet)

Letter to Obama

2009-04-17T11:09:00.003+03:00

There is an initiative online to urge the US president to respond to the abuses in Moldova. You can take part too, below are the instructions and the letter (just don't forget to sign it)
================
You can help Moldova in 3 easy steps:
Step 1: Click on http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Step 2: Fill out the form with your information

Step 3: Copy and paste the following letter (the more people do it, the higher our chances):

Mr. President,

I have been following recent events in Moldova and was distressed by the lukewarm response and low coverage they received in the United States. I write to urge you and your administration to act and in no uncertain terms denounce the human right abuses of the Communist government in Moldova.

For the past two weeks hundreds of young Moldovans have gathered in the capital of Chisinau to peacefully demonstrate the irregular and corrupt elections held in the country on April 5. These demonstrators are protesting ongoing suppression, censorship of the press and media, infringement of basic rights to move freely. The Moldovan government, however, engaged in arbitrary retaliation against some young protesters, as recorded by the UN.

Demonstrations against anti-democractic abuses have therefore spurred more serious, unacceptable infringement of human rights, as reported by Financial Times and other leading newspapers. International observers denounced serious breaches of human and constitutional rights committed by the police. The latter arrested at least 400 students, many of whom were peaceful protesters.

These young men were beaten at police stations, imprisoned without access to lawyers, exposed to inhumane and degrading treatment, and forced into confessions. Video reports denounce significant abuses and ongoing violent police behavior. One young man was found dead after having been tortured by the police. Journalists, NGO leaders, and members of the opposition have been harassed and intimidated as well. Citizens are denied access to information as local and international media channels and internet access is being restricted and shut down.

Moldova is on the verge of losing the democratic achievements it made since independence and the international community is doing little to prevent this disaster. I sincerely urge you to make a public statement about the situation in Moldova and denounce human rights violations. In doing so, I ask you to reinforce the credibility of the United States in its commitment to democracy and universal respect for human rights.

FirstName LastName

Hypocrisy

2009-04-17T10:47:00.003+03:00

Voronin announced an "amnesty" to all those persecuted by the police for taking part in the protests. However, this is just a lot of bull. Why? Because:
1. Amnesty means that people have been convicted - most don't have any official charges
2. Amnesty means that conviction was legal, while most people had their right to a fair trial severely limited (no access to legal counsel, being forced to sign pre-written statements, judged in blocks of six within police stations - not in courts etc. etc.)
3. Injuries and deaths caused by police cannot be amnestied
4. Persecutions and arrests continue
5. Amnesty is a law that needs to be passed by parliament, which is inactive at the moment.

The Speaker of the Parliament, Marian Lupu (also a communist) declared in an interview for Financial Times that amnesty should apply to "both sides", i.e. not only to the detained, but to the abusive police officers as well, who "reacted emotionally to the injuries sustained by their colleagues" (!). At least he admits that there were abuses on the part of the police. But he also insists that those gestapo-type savages must be forgiven too!

In the meantime, apparently a third victim of police brutality was announced yesterday. Parents were notified by the police that their son had been dead for over a week and because of the advanced stage of decomposition, was put in a sealed casket. Police did not provide a cause or circumstances of death, but the date is April 7.

EU Observer article

2009-04-16T15:40:00.002+03:00

Link: EU diplomats trying to verify reports of Moldova abuses

The situation has not become any better yet. Police are still hunting young people and journalists without warrants and beatings continue.

Here is a link to a presentation by one of the opposition parties with preliminary voting fraud investigation results (in Romanian). I will try to get a translated version. The most striking finding is that in just two years the number of voters increased by over 400,000 (or by about 20%), while demographically, the population has been declining (mortality higher than birth rate + migration)

Death toll

2009-04-15T13:07:00.002+03:00

A few days ago a young man was buried with signs of a violent death, whose parents weren't announced until three days after his death. The official coroner's report says he died of intoxication with unidentified gas, but huge bruises all over his body, including a bruised cavity on his forehead suggest otherwise.

Yesterday another young man was declared dead. Once again, he was heavily bruised, while the official report says he was electrocuted. Witnesses say his body was literally dumped from a police vehicle near the hospital. The man was returning from Moscow on April 7 and there was no way for him to be participating in the protests as he was heading home, outside of Chisinau.

Journalists quote an unnamed police officer as saying that there are at least three more deaths, as yet unannounced. If the information that hundreds of young people are being detained is true, we may see many more death cases in the coming days and weeks. Some people may never be seen again, I'm afraid.

Security and police have forced the families of the victims to bury them quickly, probably in an attempt to hide the evidence. In this situation, any foreign investigation team (if any) must bring a forensic expert to carry out an exhumation and determine the true causes of death in these cases (and any other that may be revealed).

An article in western media

2009-04-15T10:52:00.003+03:00

Here is an article from Le Figaro, in French. An interesting read (I only read Romanian translation).

Still, an occasional article is not enough to help us. I imagine this is more of an exotic story than an issue of concern for Europeans and people in other developed countries. After all, for most of them, Moldova is just another African country like Congo, Rwanda, Ghana etc. The only difference is that our gorillas are well-kept, wear leather jackets, have short haircuts, carry walkie-talkies and work for the secret service.

UN report

2009-04-14T23:40:00.002+03:00

Here's an article from the Financial Times about a UN official report on torture:

http://www.euro2day.gr/ftcom_en/126/articles/490410/ArticleFTen.aspx

Where is the West?

2009-04-14T22:14:00.003+03:00

It has been a week since violence broke out in Chisinau, followed by mass arrests of young people, which are still ongoing. It is more than obvious that Voronin's regime is being supported by all branches of power, from police to constitutional court and as such there is no legal way to protect the citizens and have democratic elections without impartial, consistent, conscientious and firm outside pressure.

However, none of the usual democracy advocates have spoken out so far: the European Union, the Council of Europe, the United States, or any of the EU members (except Romania). It is clear to me that after last year's war in Georgia and the brief "cold war", they are not interested in spoiling their relationship with Russia, which clearly supports Voronin's regime. As such, we are caught in the middle of the "big boys"' political games. Where does this leave the people of Moldova - those who know that they live in Europe's poorest country, who know they are the least wanted visitors there, who are looked at as a second-class nation by Russia and who desperately want a better life?

The options are limited, as has always been throughout history: either tolerate this indefinitely, providing the dictator with even more confidence, or fight, risking losing many lives in hopes to win. This could probably be avoided if the west took a more pronounced stance on the matter rather than making general statements like "parties must resolve the conflict peacefully" or "violence is bad". What about the more than evident voting fraud and communists' methodical actions to erase all traces? What about hundreds of innocent students held in tiny cells 20 at a time without water and food, denied the right to see parents or have lawyers, who were picked in classrooms or in streets in broad daylight, who are beaten regularly into signing false statements? What about continuing expulsions of foreign journalists? Isn't this worth any effort at all? Why is it that only NGOs and common people care? Or maybe democracy in Moldova is not as important as democracy in Georgia or Ukraine or Russia? I guess different countries desere different kinds of democracy.

I just hope to see the day Vornonin and his cronies are judged for their crimes in a fair trial, unlike the hundreds of young people who may be dying right now in illegal detention centres as the outside world sit on their &^%.

Yes, I am furious - no stupid comments about this please.

Atrocities

2009-04-14T13:43:00.002+03:00

The past few days saw a lot of reports about atrocities committed by police and secret services against a large number of young people who took part in protests (and those who didn't).

Here is a link to a blog which contains translations of some of these reports, as well as open letters to western institutions calling for immediate reaction and intervention at the highest level. What you are about to see or read is not for the faint-hearted. Make sure no children are around to see this either.

The link: True Moldova

Paranoia

2009-04-09T22:05:00.002+03:00

I've never been a paranoiac (well, except when washing my hands three times with soap ;) ), but recent events, media reports and rumours are turning me into one.

My fears relate to the possible usurping of power by the communists. Voronin seems desperate to hold on to power and at the same time, there are some reports that he was the one who organised the whole mess (i.e. violence and the devouring of parliament and the presidential palace).

The word goes that the most aggressive protesters were represented by specially hired people whose job was to start the violence and break into the government buildings. Allegedly, these people were guided through these buildings to the offices they had to ransack, doors and safes were unlocked for them in advance. Moreover, reportedly, communist MPs were told in advance to remove all valuables from their offices before the protests began. Also, reports say that these people were shouting pro-Romanian slogans in Romanian and at the same time talked with each other in Russian. Police didn't make any serious attempts to stop them, while fire fighters didn't come until late in the evening, several hours after offices started burning in the parliament. Voronin was also quoted as saying in an interview for Russian media that he intentionally let the crowd enter those buildings "to give them what they wanted and see how well they would handle the symbols of power that they desired so much". Footage of a policeman breaking a piece of concrete fence and a photograph where a policeman is apparently seen on the roof of one of the buildings next to the protesters installing the EU flag only make this whole nightmare more credible. On the internet there is a rumour that employees of the government headquarters were warned to remove their valuables from their offices today. At the same time, the prime minister warned that if there are any more attacks on government buildings, police will use live ammo if needed.

The opposition have been given four days to verify the voter lists. Four days to check a million or so names! But I'm not sure if there is any real point in that. If Voronin had the guts to rig the vote in such a shameless manner and if police and other state institutions follow his commands so devotedly, there really is no hope that anything democratic can happen that will remove him from the top.

One of the opposition parties has called for the EU, CE and USA to send a mission into Moldova to investigate crimes committed by communists during this turmoil. The party is PL, whose head is the mayor of Chisinau. He, more than anyone, knows that only Voronin has real power. It was demonstrated by the insubordination of the chief of Chisinau police, who repeatedly ignored mayor's orders to provide police officers during various events in the past two years, such as manifestations etc. to maintain law and order, or during the last two new years, when police arrested the city's christmas tree to allow the installation of the president's tree instead (yes, it really happened).

In addition, reporters have been beaten, arrested, expelled, and at least one has been missing since today after he went to undergo a medical examination after being beaten by the police yesterday (he is one of the leaders of the NGO Hyde Park advocating human rights). Students were also taken by police or secret service from university classes today.

So, there's more than enough to be worried about. Democracy may die before even being born in Moldova, and if this happens, it is hard to see a peaceful resolution.

Voronin's strategy

2009-04-09T13:48:00.004+03:00

Preliminary assessment of costs to repair the parliament and presidential palace is 300 million MDL (a little less than $30 million). Voronin says the money will be taken from the state budget - from the funds that should have gone to universities whose students took part in protests. In the meantime all evidence shows that damage was caused by specially tasked people who had nothing to do with the protesters, while police and fire fighters didn't even try to stop the looting and put out the fires.

And here's an interesting image from unimedia.md, guess who is standing in the back:

Another face of the devil...

2009-04-09T11:42:00.006+03:00

As I continue following independent media (see previous posts) for a reflection of the current events, I tend to believe more and more in one idea: Voronin is becoming another Smirnov, Lukashenko, Chavez or Ceausescu. Authoritarian, totalitarian old KGB-bred communist, trying to hold on to power at all costs.

While there are many speculations about who was behind the Tuesday's violence and the destruction of Parliament, it is certainly very convenient for Voronin. Yesterday, communists put a lot of older people in the streets in regions, feeding them a completely untrue picture. These people have no access to internet or independent TV channels and thus will take anything that the government gives to them.

There is an opinion now that Voronin organised the looting of the parliament and the presidential palace to destroy accounting records that would show his abuse of power. I'm not sure about the credibility of this theory, but I tend to believe that he is desperate to hold on to power, otherwise he is likely to be accused of many crimes, including those against the country and the people (opposition can come up with dozens or even hundreds of accusations, and many would be fair). Therefore the old man doesn't want to let go. His term expired on Tuesday, by the way. His desperate grab of the steering wheel is taking him closer to Ceausescu's fate, and he probably realises this well, which makes him even more desperate.

Last night police with unidentified people in civilian clothes were beating peaceful protesters and journalists behind the government headquarters and army vehicles were reportedly seen on the site later in the evening. Romanian reporters are denied entry into Moldova, while those already here are being expelled. Moldovan independent media are being attacked on many fronts: reporters are being beaten, arrested or issued arrest warrants, their websites attacked and so on. Some of the leaders of NGOs who supported the protests (they did not support the violence, neither did they organise the protests in the first place) are wanted by the police as organisers of a putsch and they risk up to 20 years in prison. About 200 young people were arrested on Tuesday night and their location is unknown as family members are continuously being referred from one place to another without actually being able to find the missing. Some people have already compared this situation to Timisoara in 1989. I don't know the details of those events but as far as I know, that is where the Romanian revolution started.

Voronin accused Romania of organising the protests and violence and this is the message that people in the regions have got. He also demands the arrest of Moldova's richest man - Gabi Stati - as the sponsor of these events.

Yesterday border crossings with Romania were closed for some time, even Moldovans could not return home, while vehicles where being checked in Moldova and not let in or out of Chisinau. Trains from and to Bucharest were suspended for two days yesterday due to a "technical problem" (yeah, right...). Not the buses though (but these can easily be stopped at the border as they have been).

All this stinks of old KGB school and usurpation of power by Voronin. And people do not want to live in a KGB country.

Unrest

2009-04-08T21:29:00.009+03:00

You may have read in the media about the sad events in Chisinau on Tuesday. Here's how I see the situation from what I have gathered from different (mostly independent and anticommunist) media:

As you may know, the parliamentary elections took place on Sunday. Preliminary results released on Monday revealed that by some divine intervention communists have won 50% of all votes, which will give them 61 seats in parliament (out of total 101) - exactly the number they need to create new government and elect the president unopposed.

Opposition said that they have numerous evidence that the elections were rigged, like same people voting several times, thousands of dead people listed as voters and some people listed at addresses where they never lived. Also, some locations had up to 40% extra voters on additional lists (i.e. those who are not listed due to recent change of address etc. which is highly unusual as this normally doesn't exceed 10% - can you believe that 40% of population registered in a town is not in the lists?)

On Monday, a group of students organised a protest calling for repeated voting as they (and pretty much everyone else) believed the vote was rigged by communists. Their protest was officially registered and authorised for two days - monday and tuesday. On Monday, several thousand students participated and on tuesday morning protests resumed, but many more had joined - up to 10,000-15,000 people (some reports say up to 30,000). The crowd gathered in the centre - on central square and also between the parliament and the presidential palace, demanding a re-vote and shouting anti-communist slogans. Obviously, police were at the scene, trying not to let anyone into the government buildings.

At some point, it turned violent as protesters clashed with the police. Leaders of the three opposition parties (PL, PLDM and AMN), who made it into the parliament made several calls for peace throughout the day, moving much of the crowd back to the square. However, whether organised or simply anarchic, some young people clashed with the police, taking the pavements apart for rocks, hurling them at the police and basically forcing the police to flee. As such, they gained access into the parliament and presidential palace and vandalised the two buildings (see what it looks like today ). The police didn't come back until the night.

Late in the evening, the buildings were still unprotected, largely looted and vandalised and the parliament was burning without any intervention from the police or the fire fighters. Apparently, the communists either planned this situation in advance or decided to profit from it and let the crowd (only several hundred people) take over the places. We were watching TV in the evening and they were showing live footage of the parliament burning and the TV channel called the spokeswoman for the ministry of the interior who said that there were 8 fire trucks at the place but there were none! It was mostly drunk young people vandalising the place but the police didn't intervene for some reason. So here.

At the same time, the communists have accused the opposition of all this mess, although it has been said many times that the protests weren't organised by them. Interestingly, the president, whose term ended yesterday, didn't address the protesters once. Neither did anyone from the government, while the oppositions was constantly trying to keep people calm to avoid violence, although they didn't have anything to do with the organisation of the protests.

Interestingly, protesters were taking some of the injured policemen to ambulances, carrying them on their hands. This shows that the protest was well-meant.

The state TV (Moldova 1) did not report any of these events throughout the day until the evening news. Roads into Chisinau were blocked, borders closed, internet and mobile phones also had problems throughout the day. This all looked like the government tried to prevent people from learning about the situation, instead feeding them well-prepared disinformation later (opposition has no access to the state-run TV channel and making it available to all political parties was another demand by the students and the opposition). Most independent media websites didn't load, although I think this was more due to overload than to KGB efforts. (btw, Voronin is an ex-KGB general)

During the night, police came back, a lot of people were arrested and apparently taken to an unknown location as no one knows where they are. Blank rounds were fired during the arrests. Injured protesters were also taken from the hospital and their location is unknown, according to some reports.

Today protests continue, as cleaners clean the mess left behind, guarded by reinforced police. The ministry of interior declared last night that if necessary, live bullets will be used.

So far, no reports of violence today, and we all hope it remains this way. At the same time, the communists have accused Romania of organising this mess, are expelling Romanian embassy staff and have announced the introduction of visas for Romanian citizens.

By the way, no one died yesterday, although there were reports of deaths.

Also, here's footage of a policeman breaking a concrete fence at a school near the presidential palace. I'm sure he wasn't preparing the rocks for the police.

The best websites to get independent information are (in Romanian):
unimedia.md
curaj.net
jurnaltv.md
Some YouTube videos

Foreign media (except Romanian) mostly do not have the full picture or up-to-date information and may report bulls**t, like deaths and stuff.

Limbo

2009-04-06T22:53:00.004+03:00

The elections are over. According to official data (http://www.alegeri.md/) based on 98.13% of votes, communists have won 50% of all votes and will have exactly enough seats in parliament to run the show, once again (isn't it quite a coincidence!).

Communists got more votes yesterday than 4 years ago - paradox. Or is it? Thousands of young people call it fraud:

I tend to agree. But I'm biased. But the thought that we'll have another 4 years of autocratic regime of Voronin is just unbearable. Orange/rose/[pick any colour] revolution anyone?

(Source: Unimedia.md)

More photos
Detailed report of events (in Romanian) with videos

London is waiting

2009-03-06T16:30:00.002+02:00

After a lot of thinking Sasha and I decided to go to London on vacation at the end of summer. I haven't had a real vacation in four years and it's time we went somewhere we wanted to go and had a good time. The main difficulty with arriving at this decision was our daughter, who will turn two at the time of our planned trip. We couldn't decide if the trip is worth the hassle until we found out that London offers plenty of activities for young children.

This seems to be a perfect time to travel for several reasons:
1. Oil is cheap so air travel is relatively cheap too
2. Iulia will be under 2 years old at the time of travel, so we can buy her a lap ticket for a fraction of the cost of a full ticket (unless we want a separate seat for her)
3. The pound is very cheap against other currencies making it cheaper to travel now
4. The recession may actually lower some prices in the UK (I am hoping that a decline in tourist travel due to global recession will keep the rent rates down)

Now the main problem is finding an affordable place to stay for two weeks in London. London is still a very expensive place to visit and rent rates are mostly exorbitant for an average Moldovan (and for us). I really don't want to spend all of my family's savings in two weeks, but it looks like little will remain. So any suggestions for inexpensive, but clean and conveniently located, self-catered family flats will be more than welcome. None of my contacts (and I have quite a few in London) came back with positive results, so I'm still looking.

Our itinerary is not complete but we so far have the following in mind:
1. London Zoo
2. Kew gardens
3. Children's zoo somewhere in London
4. Entertainment centres with various activities for children (like pottery etc.)
5. Day visit to Brighton Pier
6. Day visit to Kent beach (maybe)
7. Shopping (believe it or not, London offers a lot of cheaper clothes and other stuff than you can find in Moldova)

Any ideas about what else to do with a 2 year old and a 13 year old (my sister) are more than welcome.

Ah yes, we still need to get the visas, which are ridiculously expensive (€78 each).

Decisions, decisions...

2009-03-06T15:47:00.002+02:00

This year is election year in Moldova, which means that people have to decide who they will vote for. And although one would expect that over the years this decision should have become easier to make, this is far from reality.

The difficulty of deciding lies in the following dilemma: should one vote for communists who have been running the show for 8 years and seem to have consolidated power at least somewhat, or for other "democrats" who are more than likely to spend more time arguing in the parliament over meaningless (and sometimes meaningful) issues than actually doing their job as lawmakers? There is no real differentiation between most parties, as virtually all of them promise more or less the same thing, if only in a different shade (this blog post by Nicu Popescu summarises this well). The argument goes that communists will simply carry on with their policies, while a new ruling party will first plunder, filling their pockets with money, and reorganise everything to their liking and only then will it begin doing something useful (if at all). Moreover, if there emerges no ruling party, constant altercations and boycotts by the unhappy deputies will simply halt the lawmaking process, as often was the case before the communist party won the supermajority. But the argument in favour of communists is offset by the apparent degradation in democracy in Moldova in recent years, attacks on opposition, independent media and NGOs, as well as lack of tangible progress in economic reforms.

[Here I spent half an hour trying to elaborate my point of view on an issue until I actually proved myself wrong, so in order to avoid public embarrassment, I have deleted this text]

And I strongly believe than not voting or voting against all is not an option.

The Year Is Out, phew!

2008-12-26T23:47:00.002+02:00

Hi all!

As I had done numerous times before, I abandoned this blog for a while, but now I'm back.

The year is almost over, and what a year it was! The global financial meltdown, the political wars in Chisinau and Iulia's first steps - three very different and very important events that marked this year for me.

Parenting
Iulia is growing very quickly, and going each step of the way with her is very exciting, interesting, sometimes scary and almost always fun. But can she be a pain sometimes! I work at home and her latest toys are the keyboard and the mouse :) Good thing I have a second set and Sasha, my wife, to keep an eye on her.

Chisinau politics
Usually, Moldovan politics is boring. But this year turned out to be very exciting!

The city council had a shake-up in the summer - an "ally" (Mr. Musuc) of the mayor's party who helped the Mayor's Liberal Party (PL) to form a majority in the council unexpectedly switched sides to join the communists and others and tipped the balance (the "majority" was only marginal - one or two voices). At the same time, press reported that fraud charges against Mr. Musuc were dropped and demands to pay damages to the state totalling 2 million lei were cancelled, what a coincidence! Mr. Musuc also denounced the chief of the council quite illegally and has inserted himself with the help of his new communist friends. He also immediately denied entry to the public into the council sessions.

The ProTV channel managed to record through a keyhole (yes, a keyhole!!!) Mr. Musuc's chat with the judge who was dealing with the case about the legality of his actions right after a court session, where it was obvious that the judge was being loyal to him, so he got very upset :) Courts upheld Mr. Musuc's actions (obviously!)

And now, there's a whole new story about ProTV's broadcasting license not being renewed. And 2009 is election year!

By the way, Mr. Musuc's unexpected switching sides for communists is not the first case of this kind. After the last parliamentary elections, the Christian Democrats (PPCD), quite a noticeable, although minor, party, did just the same - becoming the communists' strongest ally, granting them a supermajority in the parliament. And before that, PPCD was one of the biggest opponents of the communist party. Now, PPCD's leader acts as the president's bitch (I apologise but I don't know a better word, "servant" wouln't suffice here).

Generally, 2008 is the first year that I noticed a degradation in political process and democracy in Moldova.

Global recession
The financial crisis has not spared me either. For the better part of autumn, my clients lay low and I hardly had any work. Only in November and December did I get two decent projects, both from new (hence possibly one-time only) clients. I hope 2009 will be a better year. My skills (equity research) are not needed in Moldova because we don't have a functional financial market :( so I need my clients!

Hopefully soon I will blog a little more on some issues I didn't mention before.

Still stuck here

2008-07-31T17:20:00.002+03:00

Yesterday I received an e-mail from a recruiter looking for candidates to fill in "20 openings, Sr and VP level positions" in MSCI Barra. Today it turns out they're only looking for someone who lives in the USA and has a US work permit. Too bad. NYC, I'm not coming... yet.

Moving abroad.... or to the country?

2008-03-09T23:57:00.002+02:00

Hi all!

I have recently been thinking.... Life in Moldova (and Chisinau in particular), isn't exactly nice, as you probably know. The last year has been particularly bad because the stupid communist government (led by the stupid communist president) is making everything it can to preclude the democrat mayor from making his job (http://www.protv.md has many news reports on this struggle, but only in Romanian). Besides, Chisinau is becoming an increasingly uncomfortable place to live and, very importantly, real estate has become prohibitively expensive, even for the wealthier people.

I live in a "khrushchevka" - one of many apartment blocks built in the 1960s, featuring tiny rooms, lack of elevators, old infrastructure, and many other inconveniences (like two demented old women in neighbouring apartments). Basically, these are ill-fitted for comfortable life or work (and I work from home). To give you numbers, my apartment has 56 square metres and has 3 rooms, plus a tiny kitchen, a tiny bathroom and a tiny closet.

I would like to move to a new apartment, in one of the many new apartment blocks being built these years - with areas of over 100 square metres, independent heating, relatively free interior design (meaning that I can decide where the rooms, kitchen and bathroom will be), underground parking etc. However, in recent years, the price of these new apartments has shot through the roof, going from $250 per square metre to over €1,000! The median price now is probably around €400-500, meaning that to buy an apartment I will need to find at least €40,000 (and experts forecast continuous rise in prices of around 20-30% per year for years to come). And this is the price for the so called "white option", i.e. with bare white walls and no interior finish of any kind. Another €10,000 or so will need to be spent on finishing it (ceiling, walls, floors) and roughly another €10,000 to install all the equipment (including bathroom accessories) and furniture. Probably even more. Underground parking is also a paid commodity, costing probably around €5,000 or more.

You'll probably say: hey, get a mortgage! ...right... a mortgage.... In Moldova, mortgages are relatively new, and thus hardly accessible by western standards. The term is 15 years at most, as far as I know, and interest is around 15% in euros (!). Moreover, when applying for a mortgage, one must provide 30% of the purchase price from one's own wallet. Thus, monthly mortgage payments will be around €500 if applying now, and probably much higher in the coming years. In addition, banks and other lenders look at your source of income, and I don't have a guaranteed income. So simply put, I cannot buy a new apartment.

Other problems in Chisinau are the bad quality or air (very polluted), a lot of cars and lack of parking (not a single multilevel parking, so drivers park their cars everywhere - on sidewalks, lawns, playgrounds etc.), noise pollution (traffic, music, drunks, mobile phones etc.), high prices and rising inflation, horrible traffic, crazy killer drivers driving government vehicles (such as ministers, presidential staff, generals, colonels etc.), and even a lot of mentally sick people who need institutional care but are not getting it (like two of my neighbours).

Generally, such poor quality of life makes one wonder about moving. Everyone asks me why I haven't considered emigrating. I have, but I kind of like it here (except all the stuff I have listed above). Moldova is my home, our parents live here, and I don't want to start from scratch in a foreign country (especially with a newborn child).

A few days ago I thought that it would be wonderful to live outside Chisinau - no noise, cleaner air, no stupid neighbours (assuming living in a standalone house, not an apartment) etc. While this is the norm in the West (living in a suburb and working in the city), it is very uncommon here. Mainly because only Chisinau and a few other towns are more or less developed - other places are basically rural, with poor or no infrastructure, toilets in outhouses and other inconveniences - even in the suburbs.

My parents were born in a village about 50km from Chisinau - Ciuciuleni (pronounced Choo-choo-len'). I love going there for the clean air, quietness and just feeling part of this country. My work requires only a live broadband internet connection and thus, in theory, I could live almost anywhere where there is a phone line. There is also a more or less big house built by my father in Ciuciuleni (not too big, but larger than my apartment). But it lacks modern improvements, like good windows, decent sewer, etc. The village also has poor road access and during icy or rainy weather commuting is difficult. Most importantly, Sasha, my wife, will need to
get a job one day, once our daughter gets a little older, and going to work to Chisinau and back five times a week is a big problem (especially considering the poor road and the fact that Sasha is not going to drive herself). There are also issues like no chance to just get out of the house and go to a store or cinema (no such places there), or visit friends or parents who live in Chisinau.

All these obstacles make me look at this issue more as a theoretical concept rather than a real goal. However, this sounds too damn good to just ignore: with the money saved on not purchasing any new property in Chisinau, I probably could renovate the whole house, install good sewage, buy a good new car, install a wind power generator and probably have cash left for other purposes. But the problem of living far from "civilization" will remain - the village is just "too rural" and lacks such simple things as a decent grocery store or paved roads. At least they are bringing gas in there (this year), so gas heating can be installed.

Saving money in Moldova...

2007-10-30T22:26:00.000+02:00

...by purchasing in the USA. Yes, that's right, it can be cheaper to buy stuff from the USA on the other end of the world and have it sent to Moldova than to buy similar things here. Here's how it's possible, if you're interested.

Those of you who have read my website know that things like electronics, quality clothes etc. are awfully expensive in Moldova, despite the low income of the population. This year I decided to build a new computer, but I wanted all the key components (CPU, hard drive, motherboard, memory, video card) to be brought from the USA by my friends, who visit Moldova once or twice a year. So I used the online stores www.NewEgg.com, www.mwave.com and www.ZipZoomFly.com to pick the components I could afford (I went for the cheapest parts in modern product lines). Unfortunately, these stores do not accept Moldovan bank cards, so I had my friend order the parts for me. When he got all the parts, he sent them to me via an international parcel service (he used Meest, which specializes in deliveries to the CIS). The shipping cost an additional $50 and took 6 weeks to arrive (instead of promised 2-3 weeks). But eventually I got my stuff. I estimate that I saved between $100-$200 on my $450 purchase (including shipping). Of course, we had to remove all original packaging from the hardware and describe it as "old computer junk" to save hassle with Moldovan customs (there's a EUR200 limit on how much worth of stuff you can bring into Moldova at once, except for personal effects). Even if I had to pay the 20% VAT on this stuff, I would have saved money. Moreover, at the time, these components were hardly available in Moldova (too new for our little country). Oh, and I also got the parcel delivered to my home, unlike usual parcels which you have to go pick up yourself.

For my new computer I wanted a new operating system - Windows Vista. In Moldova you have two options - pay a fortune for a license or download a cracked version from a local bittorrent network. For some reason, Windows is more expensive in Moldova than in the USA and I can't understand why, because (1) Microsoft must be interested in stimulating people into buying licensed software here more than anywhere else; and (2) it can't cost much to have it shipped to Moldova (this is software, for crying out loud! it's an INTANGIBLE good!!!). I really wanted to have a licensed product, but I didn't want to pay too much ($300 is too much I think). So again I had my friend order it online and simply send me the activation key by email, while I downloaded the installation DVD image from the local bittorrent network. And the software cost me $175 (Home Premium, retail version), saving me around $100.

Another USA purchase was from Victoria's Secret. Their semi-annual sales are very cheap for Moldova, and we ordered four blouses for Sasha to be delivered directly to Moldova (this cost only $5 or $10 more than having it delivered to our friend's address in Illinois). So we took our chances (Moldovan postal service has historically been highly unreliable). We ordered in late August, and the stuff shipped in early September. We were notified that the delivery would take place before September 21. When it didn't arrive by September 23, I contacted the customer service and was given a new date - October 2. So I waited until October 4 and notified them again. They replied saying that they would send the stuff again, but because two of the four items were no longer available, they would issue the refund for the unavailable items. The same day I got a notification to pick up an international parcel. So I sent a message to the customer service to cancel the replacement order and to not issue the refund, to which I was told that it was too late and that I should have called them by phone. As a note, it took them two weeks to ship the original order. So I picked up their first package, and a few days ago I picked up the second one. Plus I was issued a refund, which is one-third of the whole transaction ($30 out of $90). Now Sasha has two extra blouses which she does not need and plans to sell. Here such quality is pretty expensive, I estimate that one blouse would cost around MDL 500-600 ($45-50) in shops, and it should be easy to sell them for $20-30 apiece. So if you do the math, the whole cost may approach zero. This is a very weird result of VS's too optimistic estimates, slow shipping combined with ultrafast shipping and the slow road to Moldova for international parcels. God moves in mysterious ways! But I'm not complaining ;)

I'm back...

2007-10-30T22:18:00.000+02:00

Hi. I haven't updated this blog since May. A lot of things have happened since then, the most important being the birth of my daughter Iulia. She was born on September 7, so Sasha and I are enjoying all the treats of being parents for the first time. The summer was quite busy with work so that's the main reason I didn't add anything new here then. Maybe the main reason is laziness. You be the judges of that.

Other major events during this period are:
- I passed the CFA Level 2 exam, so now I am Level 3 candidate;
- I started a new website for my professional activity (i.e. equity research outsourcing). So far, it has not generated new revenues, but there are some new contacts thanks to it and I am hoping to monetize them eventually.

By the way, I managed to vote when coming back from my CFA exam (see previous post).

No citizen's obligation this year

2007-05-10T09:24:00.000+03:00

You probably know that in the first days of June I'll be going to Kiev to take my CFA exam. Quite unfortunately, the same weekend Chisinau will have its mayor elections and I won't be able to make it because I'll spend the day in a train.

The reason I am disappointed has a two-year history. In July 2005, Chisinau was electing its Mayor, but failed due to low voters' turn up. At that stage the authorities decided to have a second try, but most candidates (except the Communists - the ruling party) insisted on postponing the elections until a better time, when most people have returned from their vacations (July just happens to be the most "vacationed" month, along with August). Thus, they took their candidacies off. A couple weeks later, the new elections obviously failed again due to only two candidates and still few people in the country.

So, the next try was in Autumn, when the vacation season was over. Still, the elections were invalidated by low presence rate of voters. I think most of them got tired of going to elections with no results, so there was no mayor elected, and a Communist guy was put in charge as the "Interim Mayor" for the next two years to let things cool off.

And this year we should see the new developments of this stupid situation, and I will be away and won't be able to vote.

Don't waste money on games and music in Moldova

2007-05-10T08:59:00.000+03:00

Last week I got extremely frustrated by the music and software retail industry in Moldova. Specifically, I was going after buying two music CDs: Mika and Muse (doesn't it sound like 'Mickey Mouse'? :D ), and a computer game Half-Life 2, but failed in both.

There's a music store next to my house, they sell movies, music and games. First of all, there's no logic in how they arranged music CDs on their shelves - you can find Rasmus in two distinct locations, and the staff explain this by the fact that one CD costs 60 MDL ($5), while others costs 110 MDL ($9) and thus are positioned in different locations. Other than that, they claim their CDs are arranged alphabetically under general genre tags. But when under the "pop/rock" tab (isn't it too broad?) I found George Benson and told them that it's hardly pop/rock, they told me that that particular location was Jazz. That was insulting my intelligence but I didn't pay attention to it. Oh, and the most frustrating thing, neither Mika nor Muse (i.e. their latest albums) have made it into the store and I doubt they will get sold in Moldova ever. The same happened when I was looking for Franz Ferdinand CDs - they just don't get sold in Moldova. So what choice have I got? That's right - download some music from the local bittorrent network. On the other hand, we bought a Mozart CD for just 60 MDL ($5), which is cheaper than most music CDs that cost around 100 MDL ($8) these days. And another thing: last summer, music CDs cost 80 MDL, in winter they cost 95 MDL, and now they cost 110 MDL. This can't be good.

Now the other issue - the Half-Life 2 game. They had a game DVD (which cost me 100 MDL = $8) claiming it was Half-Life 2 "Episode 1" expansion. So I bought it. As it turned out, this was some poorly done pirate mod with boring gameplay that lasted no more than 1.5 hours in total. So, I'll never buy a game in Moldova again, because even those carrying the official hologram are pirated (the same happened when I bought my Civilization 4 - it was a DVD disk image packed onto two CDs and I had to install the disk image onto my hard drive and use disk image masking tools to fool the game into thinking it was a legitimate DVD). And buying a game for $20-40 from abroad is far too expensive for Moldova :'( Bittorrent rules! (sadly)

So what conclusions can we make from all this? The Western software and media producers have got to respect our little nation with its small disposable income and healthy appetite for entertainment. I mean they must find a way to respect us by selling their stuff directly in Moldova at Moldovan prices (currently, most software and music comes from Ukraine and Russia and there's no guarantee it's legal). Until then, pirated software, music and movies will be thriving in Moldova.

Remembering the dead

2007-04-24T08:28:00.000+03:00

Last weekend Sasha and I went with my parents to their village (where they were born). It was the next weekend after the Easter, which here is celebrated as "Pastele Blajinilor" (i.e. "The Easter of the Blessed", or "Parents' Day" in Russian). On this day (actually someone does it on Sunday, others - on Monday), people go to cemeteries where their parents and grandparents are buried, and perform a few rituals, in addition to simply remembering them.

One of the rituals is to put a towel on the grave, on top of which to put a plate/bowl with Easter eggs , candy, Easter cake, a glass/cup and a candle in it). Usually there are more than one grave together (when relatives are buried together), so each grave would have such a dressing. People would serve each other wine and drink for the memory of their parents and grandparents. But first of all, people would take an old can (from a conserve), put in it a little paper and light it up, then add a little incense on top until it begins emitting scented fumes, and make three circles around the grave(s) with this can - to protect the buried from evil or devil or something like that.

At the same time children would go around the cemetery with bags, greeting you with "Christ is risen!", expecting in return cake/candy etc. to be put into their bags (a bit like Halloween's Trick or Treat, but without the Trick part). By the end of the day they can hardly carry the heavy bags.

The main part of the day is waiting for the priest to come around, giving him a "Remembrance book" and some money. The book is a simple small notebook sold by churches where one would write the names of all people for whom they would like the priest to say a prayer (these must be deceased people). Some people forget these books at home, but it is OK to write the names on a piece of paper. Thus, the priest comes to the grave, you give him the book and some cash and he sings the prayer. He sings it in the way Orthodox priests sing in churches, while a group of women accompanying him provide choir and back vocals. At the end of the prayer they sing "God have mercy on them" at which time you are supposed to lift the towel on the grave, or at least its corner, and move it up and down above the grave. Then you give the priest a glass of wine and he pours it on the grave making an orthodox crucifix image (i.e. a cross with an additional diagonal bar below the horizontal one). After that the priest returns the book, you give him a gift and he moves on to the next grave. A pair of men behind him carry a basket for "gifts". These gifts are ritual and symbolise a sacrifice in exchange for the people's wellbeing in the afterworld. The gifts are also symbolic - an Easter cake, a few easter eggs (i.e. dye-boiled eggs), some candy, a towel or a plate/bowl/glass/cup - usually such a "gift set" is taken from one of the graves. It is also a ritual to give similar "gift sets" (which were on other graves) to young people or children and to anyone else. After the priest has gone, people usually serve others with wine that they had brought with them and leave. Sometimes people have to wait the whole day until the priest comes to them, but usually each year the path is altered so that people wait a different period of time each year.

I hadn't been to a cemetery in many years. This year I wanted to pay a tribute to my grandparents, which included going to two cemeteries in one day. An extra "bonus" of such a visit is that people talk about the buried people and you find out a lot of interesting stuff about your parents' childhood and about your grandparents. This is especially valuable for me because both of my grandfathers had died before I was born.

I am planning to put up a few pictures on my website, so that you could see a Moldovan village cemetery during this day - I am sure it's nothing like what you may have seen at home.

Romanian Embassy: part 2

2007-04-20T08:36:00.000+03:00

For those who read the previous post, here's the second episode of the epic battle. My colleague and I actually went back to the Romanian embassy on March 29th. We had gathered more documents and decided to apply for a tourist visa rather than saying we were going to an exam.

So there we were, at 10 a.m., waiting for a chance to get in. The Romanian visa issuing system works as follows: you can only get an appointment by filling in an online form, but usually there are no available spots if you look during the day. However, each night at midnight new spots become available and people actually wait with their forms filled in until midnight to quickly press the "Register" button. Some people have turned this into a business and charge 40 EUR just for that (not everyone has a PC and Internet at home and not everyone is willing to go to an Internet cafe at midnight). Luckily, if you get an appointment, it is valid for one month, so it covers repeat visits, like ours. BUT! If you're a repeat visitor, you can only enter after the current day's appointments have been served. So we managed to get in at 2 pm!

So there we were, thinking that this time we would be able to get those bloody visas. We had even got a reservation voucher from a Romanian travel agency (it is a requirement for touristic visa - either a reservation voucher or some other certificate for that, but not both - this is important). We had also made a flight reservation (because you must have a travel ticket before you apply for a visa!!). But, as it turned out, the travel agency issuing the us the voucher, was not on the embassy's accreditation list (WTF? They don't mention it on the embassy website!). Besides, the embassy staff demanded both the voucher and the certificate, which clearly contradicts their own publiched requirements.

Anyhow, after about 30 minutes of negotiations and the embassy lady going back and forth with these papers, she calls some guy with a beard, who begins asking all sorts of questions, both relevant and irrelevant, so we tell him that we have an exam, that we came the second time, and that we had electronic letters from the CFA institute, which we showed to him. And he says - then why the hassle if you have letters? (WTF?x2) Then the lady explains to him that the letter is neither official (i.e. without any signatures or stamps) nor is it in Romanian (an English language letter would have to be traslated+legalised). So in the end he says: please wait, the consul will come and see you in a few minutes. Yay! They also told the same to a lady who was having some other kind of problems.

1.5 hours later, no Consul, no visas... ^&*k the Romanian embassy, we're leaving. And they don't even accept written complaints! Make that ^&*k double! That's when we began thinking about Kiev for real.

There was still one chance - to pay someone to make us visas. But usually these services are quite expensive - around 60 EUR I think, so we talked to a guy whom we knew a little and he was doing visas for his staff. But apparently he had problems with this stuff himself, so we changed the test center to Kiev. End of story.

Not quite. As you might know, Moldova borders only two countries - Romania and Ukraine. As of 2007, Moldovans can easily travel only to ex-USSR countries, so Kiev is really the only viable solution in terms of travel time and cost (Moscow is too far and expensive). But if you have been following the news, currently there's a political crisis in Ukraine and there is a slight risk that there will be unrest in Kiev when we get there. Same applies to Romania as of yesterday, when Romanian parliament suspended their president.

I'm So Mad!

2007-03-14T08:06:00.000+02:00

Yesterday my colleague and I went to the Romanian consulate in Chisinau to apply for visas (since Romania is a part of the EU as of 2007, Moldovans need visas to get there now). We need these visas because we have to take the CFA exam in Bucharest in June.

Appointments for the Consulate can be made online only and usually there either is no available date or the closest available date is at least one month from now. So we waited one month and showed up at 10 am as the online form told us. The form also told the other 300-400 registered applicants to show up at 10 am, so there was a crowd and no one knew what to do (luckily, only about 1 in 5 people showed up, so the crowd was not that big). Anyway, we waited for our turn and entered the consulate at about 2 pm (and yes, we were waiting in the street, standing, starving and freezing for over 4 hours). When we finally had a chance to show our application forms, we were told that the letters from the CFA Institute (from online and also from e-mail) are not valid, because as the Consulate lady said, "she could print out the same letter on her own". For a country which only accepts online appointments, this seems very hypocritical to not accept electronic documents.

The funniest thing is that we were preparing to defend our case of not having the tickets (yes, to get a Romanian visa you first need to purchase a travel ticket (!) ), because we were planning to go by train and train tickets in Chisinau are not sold earlier than 45 days in advance (and it's more than 75 days till June). But we didn't even get to that part.

And when I wanted to complain about these stupid rules and procedures I was told that I could only complain directly to the Consul and if I wanted to do that, I had to wait in the street until he shows up, and that I could not leave a written complaint. Isn't this charming!

Looks like we'll be going to Kiev this year.

PS: It was so much easier to get a UK visa.

Update 2007

2007-02-22T11:57:00.000+02:00

Hi There! Missed me? :)

Four months without a single word on this blog. It's time to make it up to you.

First of all, the excuses: I had A LOT of WORK last month (really!!!). I had two important projects with tight deadlines for two different clients, spiced up by a series of smaller assignments from another client. If you're wondering what it is that I do for living, please go to my website (the link is somewhere on the right). On my website you will also find a link to my LinkedIn profile.

Actually, the big news is: my wife Sasha and I are expecting a baby, our first child. While things are still as usual (except regular medical exams for Sasha), it's hard to imagine what will happen when the baby appears. The most fun part is that I work from home :)

On a less important side... Do you have to spend a lot of time in front of a computer monitor? My work is 100% computer-based, and when I was working on the projects I mentioned above, it occurred to me that I need a bigger screen. I have a 17" LCD monitor, but I want to fit more Excel columns on the screen and keep the text size at a readable level. This means I need a 20"+ wide screen. Unfortunately, this is where life in Moldova kicks you in the teeth (or other parts of your body - wherever it hurts more) : such a screen would cost over $400 in Moldova, and in the USA, I could get a decent 22" one for under $300. So now my hope lies in my friend who will come from the USA some time this year - hopefully he will be able to bring me such a monitor, otherwise i will have to buy a relatively expensive 20" alternative from here. :( This actually gave me an idea: to have a live request on my website to anyone who is coming to Moldova to bring me [something] from abroad, such as a monitor in this case, or a piece of food (like bacon, which is not available in Moldova). Do you think this will work? (Maybe not with a bulky monitor, but with smaller things?)

I already mentioned LinkedIn. A friend of mine introduced me to this service. I wonder - has anybody really benefitted from it in terms of getting better paid / more interesting contracts/job offers or is it just a place where people read each other's resumes and pretend to be very smart professionals?

A State of War?

2006-10-24T09:09:00.000+03:00

Sasha and I spent last weekend in Nikolaev (Mikolaiv in Ukrainian) - in Ukraine. A friend of ours was getting married and we were invited. We had a great time, meeting a bunch ov nice people, taking a lot of pictures and exchanging them (I just love the digital imaging technology - we brought back two CDs with images instead of just our SD card).

Anyway, the only negative experience was the bus ride there and back. Although Ukraine is a naighbouring country, we had to pass 4 checkpoints to actually get into Ukraine: 1 official Moldovan (no fuss, just a quick bus check), 2 Transnistrian (when entering and respectively leaving the region), and 1 Ukraininan.

Transnistrian border pass was the biggest pain in the a.... neck. These bastards had everyone leave the bus with all their possessions including heavy luggage to queue up and have their belongings scanned in an X-ray machine like the ones you would normally see only in airports. And at Ukrainian border the bus stands there for an hour, with no action whatsoever, apparently because a customs officer is manually entering data from Immigration cards into a computer.

When we were passing Transnistria, we saw quite a few military bases - both Russian and Transnistrian. There are also camouflaged points were the Russian "piecekeepers" have their patrols. This is really stupid - it looks as if they are preparing for a war, but with whom? With Moldova? Ridiculous. Also, between the Moldovan checkpoint and the Transnistrian one, there is a block-post of Russian "piecekeepers", with soldiers armed with AK-47s and concrete blocks lying across the road, so that the passing traffic would slow down. And at the sides of the road in that place, I saw what apperared to be a well-maintained camouflaged burrow with openings for machine guns (although there were no weapons protruding).

As we were passing Tiraspol, we passed by a place with three or four buildings with their windows broken. The buildings appeared to once have been of administrative use, but now abandoned. In the courtyard between the buildings we saw a batallion of soldiers, and I think they are using these buildings to teach sodiers urban warfare. There was a mediaeval fortress in the city of Tighina (in Transnistria they call the city by the Russian name of Bender). The fortress hasn't survived through the history, but its foundation has - it's a huge place of high historical value. However, during the Soviet times (I presume), they turned it into a military base, and the Russian "piecekeepers" are still using it. The remains of the fortress are continuously turining into ruins and I'm afraid by the time they leave the fortress, there will be nothing left :(

It seems that Russians and Transnistrians puprosefully keep the whole region militarised to give the people the impression that they need protection. It is a sort of psychological warfare, but targeted at their own people.

Avatar Artwork :)

2006-10-10T20:54:00.000+03:00

Today I was browsing a Moldovan World of Warcraft server forum and came across a message by a guy whose avatar was a picture of Placinta pie, taken from my website - the What Moldovans Eat page. That was such a pleasant surprise!!!!

On second thought...

2006-09-28T18:46:00.000+03:00

Maybe I will joing the Topics from 192 Countries blog (see previous post).

Missed me?

2006-09-28T18:38:00.000+03:00

Surprisingly, nothing bad happened this time - I just decided to visit the blog again. Really - no special reason, I swear.

Anyway, what's been happening lately? Let me see... After almost a month of doing nothing, I finally had a work assignment. August is a dead season in finance and we had no orders in August and September from our clients. Last week I finally had several days of paid work, and this week - more work, although the payments for the previous project have been delayed and we are holding back work on the current one until we get the money. At the same time we have our first local project in the works. A local company wants us to find them a business partner. So now we will also become business brokers. I hope we succeed, because the bonus will be excellent. But the chances are, to be honest, very slim.

As you can imagine, I had a lot of free time. What was I spending it on? Well.... I'm too ashamed to say: I don't quite remember, meaning that I probably did all sorts of lazy stuff. But among other things, I engaged in a little graphical design. Thus, a couple of days ago I did a nice (at least I think so) set of menu icons for my website. Of course, Internet Explorer spoiled all the fun, because instead of transparent background in the icons it shows white, which looks bad. But my browser (Firefox) does an excellent job and I urge everyone to switch!

I also did a theme for Gaim Guifications. For those who don't know, Gaim is a program which, like Trillian or Miranda, gets all your instant messaging accounts in one place (I happen to have instant messaging accounts with MSN, Yahoo, Google and ICQ). So now I get nice (again, I like them) popup messages saying when my buddies get online or send me a message.

Oh yeah, almost forgot - today I used Skype for the first time. Excellent quality! Of course, if you saw me during the process, you'd laugh. I don't have a headset or a microphone, so I borrowed a microphone from a friend. This microphone can be worn on your pocket (like a pen) but it can not be placed on the desk, so I had to hold it in my hand. Thus I must have looked like a reporter from the 1960s. Imagine what it would have looked like if I had big glasses in massive frames!!

Several days ago I received an invitation from Topics from 192 countries blog to contribute to their project. I really liked it, but I think I will have to turn it down. They want at least weekly posts (if you read my blog, you'll know this is unlikely), accompanied by pictures or some songs etc. Have you ever seen a picture on my blog?

In terms of unhappiness factors, there's only one I can remember. Last week I saw a report from a village that is on the Dniestr river, i.e. between official Moldova and Transnistria, but on Moldovan bank. The village is called Varnita, it used to have a small river port which had deteriorated over the years. Local people had set up an enterprise, repaired old equipment or bought new and were ready to do business. But in April, the prot was literally raided by Transnistrian militia. They came by boats, armed. They arrested the port authorities and took them to their HQ. At the same time they seized the control over the port, right under the watchful eyes of Russian "peacekeepers" ("PIECEkeepers" is a more correct term, I saw it in this artice). And since then those poor people haven't been able to have their property back or their investments refunded. And Russian "piecekeepers" keep the people from entering the port. Russia sucks! It's a great country, it has great people and culture, but its politics has always been "divide and conquer". Sad.

At least I have cute icons on my website... :)

Transnistria: Trafficking Arms On Europe’s Doorstep

2006-08-11T18:05:00.000+03:00

This is the name of a documentary I downloaded from a Moldovan p2p network a week or two ago. It was done by a French team and shows a lot of interesting info about the bastards (it's hard not to say m*****f***ers) running Transnistria. I highly recommend this journalist investigation - see if you can find it in your local library (I know that western libraries have media archives). The file I have weighs more than 300 MB and I can't put it up on the web even if I had the permission to do so.

I Knew It!

2006-07-27T11:08:00.000+03:00

I was listening to some instrumental music and one of my favourite tunes is "The Lonely Shepherd". It has some Romanian folk notes in it but it is always signed "James Last". I couldn't believe a German composer could actually make something like that (come on, foreign folk music isn't something you learn in school). And I found it!!! Apparently James Last created it together with Gheorghe Zamfir - a Romanian composer who plays pan flute.

MSc Postponed

2006-07-27T10:32:00.000+03:00

I decided to postpone the application for the MSc Economics programme I had been planning. One of the reasons is the fact that my colleagues and I are setting up a business and we feel this Autumn and the next year will be crucial for our development. There is another reason which I can't disclose now (if ever), but it is even more important than the first one.

I have a plan though: make the business going, earn a lot of money and get that degree! Ah, sweet dreams...

Living on Credit in Moldova - Maybe in Another Life

2006-07-27T10:04:00.000+03:00

Sasha and I don't have a TV. Last year we bought a TV tuner for our computer and it has served as a TV substitute for over a year now. Unfortunately this means that whenever one has to use the PC to work/check mail/access internet etc., the TV is not really usable (the TV window has to be reduced in size). Besides, now that my computer is in repairs, we don't have even this surrogate (I am using another PC but it is rather lousy and doesn't have a tuner).

You might be asking by now, what is the link with living on credit. Here it is: we want to buy a TV. And we want to buy a flat panel one. Unfortunately, big screens cost a lot (they are way cheaper elsewhere in the world but in Moldova all appliances and electronics cost more), so we decided to get a 20" Samsung LCD TV. It's not too small and is the cheapest one around - "just" 7000 MDL (roughly $525, or €420). Of course, we don't have this kind of money lying around, so we thought we'd get a loan. And this is where Moldovan idiosyncrasies kick in.

Many retailers in partnership with a bank offer purchase on credit, to be repaid to the bank in monthly instalments. Such purchases are advertised as "interest free", but the cash price and credit price are quite different. Thus, for the 7000 MDL TV, credit purchase will cost 8250 MDL. You do the math for the "interest free" interest rate. Besides, the bank will withhold 2% commission.

So I decided to check out different banks for consumer loans. Two banks which widely publicise and advertise their consumer lending said that they are not lending at the moment (what the &^%$???? then why advertise?). In another bank I had a very 'interesting' conversation with a loan officer. Here's a transcript:

Me: Hi. Do you do consumer lending?
LO: Where do you work?
Me: In a private firm.
LO: What's the name of the firm?
Me: Well, I don't think you know the company.
LO: In that case we don't do consumer lending.

And all that without even looking at me!!!!!

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?????

I always thought banks set standards of consumer service and respect. This is bull in Moldova. &*^% the banks, borrow from friends, just like 10-15 years ago.

I also checked out a consumer lending company. There, for a 7000 MDL loan, the total amount repaid will be 8900 MDL. This is crazy!!!!

HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-07-26T22:33:00.000+03:00

I have passed CFA level 1 exam!!!! I am sooooo happy!!!!

Argh!!!!! Stupid copy protection!

2006-07-24T14:55:00.000+03:00

I just hate how some companies publish their financial reports in PDF format and enable copy protection - so that it is impossible to copy text from the document. Somebody please tell me the point! I often have to deal with French reports and have to copy French text into traslation forms to have it traslated into English. With this dumb copy protection I can't do that. I also can't quickly copy the financial statements into Excel. What purpose does this serve? It is still possible to retype the text or feed the files into an OCR application. It just takes a lot longer but doesn't quite prevent copying. These mean people just want others to waste time!!!!

Hell in Lebanon

2006-07-20T12:14:00.000+03:00

I just can't help saying it: Israel has gone too far with its war against Lebanon. Why aren't the so called "world powers" harsher on expressing their opinion? Of course, having Israel as friend is strategically more important than Lebanon. It's always like that - the smaller you are, the less important you are on the international arena.

We're Doomed (or "A Shopping Disaster: Part I")

2006-07-20T11:56:00.000+03:00

My local "Green Hills" grocery supermarket has closed for one month for repairs. To most of you this will sound like no big deal, but for us this means a month of shopping hell ahead of us. Those of you who have ever been to Chisinau and tried shopping should understand me. If you haven't... well, lucky you. Even though the "Green Hills" chain has only a handful of shops in Chisinau and they are tiny compared to western supermarkets, they still offer best service and someo of the best selection of goods in the city. Another chain - "Fidesco" - will never match them (don't ever try a Fidesco store unless you have no other options).

This also means having to go through dozens of small outlets to buy all the groceries we need :'(

Getting well-done

2006-07-07T12:12:00.000+03:00

How would you like your Moldovan to be served? Rare, medium or well done?

Well, I was sun-roasted pretty well last weekend. In fact, so well, that my crispy skin is peeling off. As it leaves my back I get some of the worst itches I have ever had. At least the worst part is over - the next day after getting sun-burnt I couldn't sleep on my back or even scratch the itchies :(.

And all this just because I took my t-shirt off at Sasha's dad's dacha while picking raspberries for an hour or two.

In fact, during summer in Chisinau you will come across quite a few people with red necks (rednecks?) and arms, bordering white skin where it was covered by shirts or vests or other garments. These people often carry buckets with home-grown (read "dacha-grown") fruits and vegetables, and I was one of them. But the world will never see my red neck - it peels off too quickly and I will have a brand new layer of epithelium in no time :)

"Is There a Country Called Moldova"

2006-06-12T20:04:00.000+03:00

This was one of the search strings that someone used before getting a link to my website. I was going to brag about how sad this is, but my website came up first on the search results (the search engine was uk.ask.com), so I decided to celebrate instead! Cheers!

Miracle Express?...

2006-05-22T12:46:00.000+03:00

...Hardly. Be warned: public transport may be more adventurous than you think.

Two weeks ago, on a Sunday night, at about 9:30 PM, Sasha and I were returning home from some friends after a long and tiring day. I was dying from a day-long headache and no aspirin could help me. There also was a nerve jammed up somewhere in my spine, so breathing and moving freely was not quite possible. In short - we really wanted to go home.

But this was just the beginning!

Our friends live at the farthest and newest end of Ciocana sector of Chisinau, so we were able to get on an empty trolleybus No. 24 which would take us home. (Or should I say "could"?)

That night, there was a free concert in the centre of the city, so the bus got full with young people heading for it. Everything was going fine, until we waited to go one extra stop to go to a shop to buy milk and bread for breakfast, got up from our seats and sqeezed through the crowded bus to the door, only to find out that the driver was not going to stop at the bus stop. OK, sometimes they do that - when the bus is extremely full, they stop 100 metres down the road so that the people from the stop couldn't get on. Well, he didn't stop there either.

Now we were approaching Circus, which is about 1km away from our stop (this is a particluarly long one). But he didn't stop there either. Neither did he stop at the next one. The ticket woman refused to return our ticket money and in reply to our demands for her to go and tell the driver to stop, she suggested we yell to him (reminder: were were standing at the back end of the bus, about 100 noisy young people between the driver and us). Thus, we got out of the bus almost at the city centre - just one stop short of the concert site, after standing in a sort of a limbo - tightly packed between hot sweaty bodies and without any chance to hold on to any sort of railing. The driver didn't seem to be particlularly interested in a conversation with angry passengers and drove off.

As we were crossing the street to get on another bus to go home, we were terrified by the big crowd wating for a bus. Fortunately for us, this was the time when buses started turning around at that place and instead of going to the centre, they were going back to our part of the city (this happens during concerts and other events). So, after a couple buses, were able to get into a more or less acceptable one. On that bus, we had an angry chat with the ticket woman - she was demanding us to pay and we were refusing as we had already paid on the previous bus. Luckily, the ticket persons do not enforce their decisions, and the "ticket discipline enforcement squads" (usually 3-4 men with apparently criminal experience marked by jail-style tattoos on their hands) don't work on Sunday nights.

We arrived to our destination and were just in time to get into the supermarket, which closed right after we had entered. On the bright side, the nerve that had been killing me for the past several days, miraculously healed. However the trip home that otherwise takes 20 minutes, lasted almost one hour.

I complained to the driver's bosses, but I am far from being sure that he will be punished. At least I complained. Usually people don't bother with even complaining to the authorities as they believe there is no point. But there is difference beteen faith and hope. My faith is also zero, but I really hope the driver is fired!

The Value of My Website

2006-04-21T12:38:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I realised once again how valuable (or should I say invaluable) my website is to me. It has given me so many opportunities. Thanks to it I had a 5-month honeymoon in London in 2004. It also lets me meet a lot of different people, both from Moldova and from abroad (the latter is by far the predominant group).

For example, yesterday I met with two people from the USA: one is a university professor, working in a Moldovan university within the Fulbright Scholar framework, teaching journalism, he also brought several of his students along; the other one - a Lonely Planet guide author, working to update the Moldova guide.

This is just another one of many examples when I made friends with people through my website. Feels really good!

Who Wants To Be a Millionnaire?

2006-03-14T09:14:00.000+02:00

On Sunday I realised that I have less than three months before my CFA Level I exam!!! And I still have four study sessions to read and to revise a lot of stuff I am not comfortable with (yet). My tests give me around 70% on average, which I feel is not enough to be sure that I will pass the real exam. I need at least 80% to be calm about this. It will be such an expensive waste if I fail, so "failure is not an option" :)

Getting Smart in London

2006-03-14T08:40:00.000+02:00

Several weeks ago I watched the movie "A Beautiful Mind" for the first time. Very nice, although not very truthful, as I decided to read about John Nash in Wikipedia and a couple of days ago saw a Discovery Science Channel documentary about the guy. More importantly though, the story of this genius reminded me of my plans to continue my education.

When I studied in UK in a private school, I applied to the London School of Economics and received an offer of admission. Lack of funds (and studying in the UK is abnormally expensive for non-EU students) made me forget about this idea, so I came home and studied in a Moldovan university.

My ultimate goal/dream is to study Economics and come up with some solutions for Moldova, which has a very distorted economy. Thus, I need to get more knowledge of modern economic theories. However, I don't believe that studying in a Moldovan university will help much. Studying Finance for four years proved to me that very few people understand what they are teaching and hardly anyone practiced the skills they are trying to pass on to students. So, studying for a graduate degree in Moldova would seem a waste of time. Thus, the only solution is to go abroad.

Since my only foreign language is English, the choice of places to go isn't very big: basically either UK or USA. But here comes in another factor: family. Surprising as it may (or may not) seem, Sasha, my wife, doesn't want me to go away. The truth is, we have spent virtually every day together since 1999, when I came back from the UK and she came back from the USA. So I guess it is hard for her to remain alone, even for a little while. But, I feel that even with a good job that I like, I will not be happy - I need to study further. So she (sort of) accepted me going to the UK for a year. But if I apply to the USA, this will most likely make her very unhappy, because USA is very-very far. So I am not sure USA is an option.

So now I am researching UK MSc Economics opportunities. The top choices for me are the University College London and the London School of Economics. Ideally, I would like to do Financial Economics, as I like finance and believe that reviving the Moldovan financial markets would be beneficial to the Moldovan economy. But Financial Economics degrees are not eligible for some grants available for pure Economics degrees :( So I will have to settle for the latter. I guess the toughest job will be getting a grant to cover all my expenses (fees, living costs, books etc). Of course, there is the GRE exam and I haven't got an idea what it is. I bought a GRE book from Amazon, but it is in the USA with my friends, who will bring it later this year.

Blind Russians and Deaf World

2006-02-03T23:28:00.000+02:00

It has been a while since my last post and I hate to start the year with such a message, but I am once again appalled.

I am simply outraged at Transnistrian authorities and the Russians' silent manner of letting them do anything they like, while at the same time calling every Moldovan statement a "provocation" and a "hurdle for peaceful resolution".

Transnistrians once again decided to show that they "have power", by putting a gate and a checkpoint at a bridge leading across the Dniester river to several Moldovan villages on the left bank, which is generally controlled by the breakaway "republic". They check documents of everyone who crosses the river there, i.e. all the villagers. They also do not let Moldovan policemen go to their places of service in those villages because "they cannot enter the checkpoint in uniforms". This means that policemen have to pass the checkpoint in civil clothes and then put on their uniforms when they get to the villages, doing the same when going home after work.

And all this is happenning in the so-called "security zone" which is supposed to be under the control of Russian "peacekeepers". Well, all the TV reports showed that there are no "peacekeepers" there, that's for sure.

And this is one of the many cases when these Russian "peacekeepers" act as de facto protectors for the illegal Transnistrian authorities. Nonetheless, Russian media are all pro-Putin, so no criticism is heard from them (as if this is a surprise). A pro-Russian internet news-service said the Transnistrians simply had installed a "railing to prevent people from falling into the river". Well, TV showed that this "railing" goes across the bridge, not along it. At the same time, Moldova is too small and non-important for the rest of the world to draw its attention to. Especially not when there is a nuclear scandal around Iran or islamists angry with a caricature.

I'm angry... and sad :'(

Babylon?

2005-12-02T23:35:00.000+02:00

Fashion TV channel was on my TV today, and I saw an advertisement of www.babylon1.com. Went to the site to see what it is (I watch TV on my computer, no other TV sets in the house). Well, I think this babylon is a brothel. Maybe I am wrong, but they have fees for time spent with their girls and these fees are high (€180 for half an hour in Vienna!). So much for the "Fashion" TV!

Whom Was I Calling Stupid?

2005-10-09T23:47:00.000+03:00

Well, sometimes you just have to learn from your own mistakes. Today (Sunday and a holiday - National Wine Festival) I managed to screw (unscrew, actually) one piece from my hot water pipe (which has centralised supply) and had to wait about 1.5 hours for the emergency team to arrive and another hour for them to actually cut the water supply and fix the bloody thing! Damn, evening sex has gone out the window!

While we were waiting for the water supply to be reconnected, one of the emergency guys said that working 24 hours straight with a 3-day off period earns him just 500 lei a month (something like $40). Of course, they did tell me earlier that their visit is not a free one (although officially it is). But just like any other city service, you are expected to pay, because these people are severely underpaid by the state. Even the ambulance would ask you to pay! So be warned.

How Stupid a Website Can Be?

2005-10-06T12:44:00.000+03:00

While doing some internet research I came across this website: Bio Curex. Can you believe it? they won't let you in without your e-mail address. And this is in the times when people try to actually fight spam and companies try to drive traffic to their websites! This is even worse than a hit counter of 000000001 I saw yesterday at some bio research company's website!

I've been delaying all sorts of bragging here for quite some time, but this is too much! (Actually, I happened to be at my computer, unlike many other times when I had no immediate possibility to go online).

Next Step

2005-09-12T23:35:00.000+03:00

It's bed time already, and I just realised I forgot that today I made an important step in my life (in my career, at least). I registered for my CFA exam, which I (hopefully) will take next June. It also cost a fortune, especially by Moldovan standards - $735 of registration and examination fees. With average monthly wage of about $80-100 in this country, the investment does look money-intensive.

Unfortunately, I had to borrow for this exam, but from a very good friend, who said I may delay the repayment until I receive the CFA designation. However, 3 years is a long term, and I hope to return this money really soon. I just want to pass these exams (three exams one year apart from each other) on the first take, 'cos paying $300+ each time is quite costly.

So here I am, bragging about money instead of expressing my gladness with this step having been finally made. But really, these CFA Institute people really rip off the candidates. And I didn't like that right after the online registration they take you to their shop site offering books for another $350!!!! Let's hope they don't read this right now. :-P

An Article about Transnistira

2005-09-08T18:13:00.000+03:00

There's a very good article about Transnistria called Russia Profile - Flying the Red-and-Green Flag. It depicts pretty well what Transnistria is. It is a shame we have to put up with this bastard Igor Smirnov, who looks like a guest from hell (just try looking up his picture on the internet) - fit for scaring children without any makeup (just look at his eyebrows).

I asked for the permission to republish the article on my website, like I did with other articles, but they have not replied yet.

Am I getting Famous?

2005-09-07T22:48:00.000+03:00

Just kidding. But really, today I was checking the statistics of visits to my website, as usual, and saw that a couple of visits were coming from a Wikipedia page. I followed the link and found that my website is among the references at the bottom of the article. Wow!

A French Affair

2005-09-07T17:16:00.000+03:00

...but not a romantic one.

There's a Russian joke about university students along these lines: A physics student is told that tomorrow he has a Chinese language exam, and the student replies: "In which room?"

This describes the situation I am in right now, and have been for the past several weeks. In August my colleagues and I faced the hard challenge of not being paid by our American employer for June and July. This unfortunate situation made us search for other sources of income and brought us to writing financial analysis reports about French companies (and yes, in French language). Well, I have never studied French, and Merci and Bon Jour is about all I can understand (but even dare not try to pronounce).

But it is not the language that is really killing me.Yes, the French language structure is very different from English, but it is very close to Romanian, which I luckily know, and understanding written French is easier than I had thought. It is the financial reporting standards that are hard to comprehend without any introduction. In US reporting, everything is straightforward, and in French - sometimes I see no logic whatsoever. Today I have to redo some work I did last week. And trying to actually comprehend everyting that needs to be taken into account really strains my brains .

Catching Attention

2005-09-05T23:29:00.000+03:00

Every night before going to bed I check the statistics of visits to my website. Today was a record day - 21 visits to the homepage (the one that the link above leads to). However, very few visits occur to the rest of my website, which comprises several dozens pages about Moldova. Well, I have noticed that most of the visitors come from one and the same page and probably my website is not exactly what they look for. But let's suppose it is. Then all these people don't know what I can show them. Then how should I attract a visitor's attention to the content of my website on a single page? Any ideas?

Cost of Living

2005-09-05T23:22:00.000+03:00

When Sasha and I were in London last year, we decided to keep track of every single expense we incurred while living there. Our statistics showed that between the two of us, we "ate" 400 pounds per month, spent on bus and underground approximately 80 pounds a month, and a few hundred pounds more - on clothing/footwear, entertainment (i.e. sightseeing) and other minor stuff.

This month we are officially starting counting what it costs to live in Chisinau (and to have a cat). Hopefully we will record every single expense and I will publish this info on my website.

Autumn's Here

2005-09-05T09:30:00.000+03:00

...and I haven't written in the last two months. Oh well, I never promised I would. However, there's quite a lot to write about. But I won't write much, 'cos I'm not in the mood for it. Just one thing.

On August 27, Moldova celebrated its Independence Day. The day didn't feel like a celebration, somehow the authorities did not create the mood for the public. There was a concert on the central square and fireworks. The fireworks were nice, although lasting only about 7 minutes, with each firing starting only after the previous one dissolved, it was nothing like what we have seen in London on Guy Fawkes Nights last year.

But the focus of my post is the concert that followed the fireworks. It was a free 2.5-hour concert of one of the biggest Russian rock bands - DDT. While I enjoyed the first in my life rock concert enormously, I was perplexed by the authorities' decision to invite a Russian band to a celebration of Independence from... Russia. Where's the logic? Sure, if DDT hadn't come, I would have gone home after the fireworks. But how do you explain to a foreigner why people supposedly celebrating independence from someone, sing songs in that someone's language?

Insurance Crooks

2005-06-21T11:52:00.000+03:00

I am so p*#$ed off!!!! (please excuse me for such a beginning of this post).

I was going to get into details of how this QBE Asito cheats on its clients, but I have changed my mind. Just remember: if you come to Moldova and want to get some sort of insurance, don't use Asito (even though it is the largest insurance company in the country). Try Donaris or some other company instead. At least I know that Donaris has a very decent president (I have personally met him), while in Asito you will see a bunch of old women and administration, which wastes half an hour of your time and then says: well, we will not pay you anyway. Then why the *@#$ (sorry) did they keep me waiting in their office for so long?! Business Moldovan style!!!! Yuck!

A New Look At The World

2005-06-12T14:46:00.000+03:00

...through new windows! They're finally here, new nice and shiny plastic windows, replacing the old crappy soviet ones. The discharged windows now clutter the living room, getting in everyone's way, saying the last goodbye to this equally old apartment. But the new ones are 100 times better, soundproof, shutting properly every time.

The cat is the only one who's unhappy, because he now can't sit on the vent window, because there isn't one now. Well, tough luck! I'm not going bac tothe old ones!!!! No way. Besides, these ones cost €700 (four windows and a balcony door).

The kitchen furniture is next, but at €2000+, it's a target too hard to hit. :( ....Spare cash, anyone?

Money Pit

2005-05-26T13:32:00.000+03:00

Hey! I'm back!!! Got some free time at work, so decided to drop you all a line :)

I won't mention (again) why it took me so long to get a new post out, except for one word that will explain everything: remodelling. Sasha and I have started repairs in the apartment my parents left me a couple of weeks ago, and the first step was to knock down a couple of walls and to build some new ones. And the money is flowing away like I've never seen before: in less than one week about $XXXX gone of the savings I had :((

And there's still a lot to do. The good thing is that I'm not the one doing it (I hired some guys who seem to be pretty good at what they do), and also the fact that the work is being done without any delays and unnecessary inactivity, like some people may have experienced. Well, at least for now. We only started last Thursday, so it's been just one week.

The bad thing is that Sasha, our cat and I still live in that apartment, and it's a real pain to clean the place every evening (to the extent that it can be cleaned). We have three rooms in the apartment, one is being used as a building materials deposit, one is our temporary bedroom, and the third one is being used for everything else, including eating (kitchen is still in the development process). I hope dad will help me, otherwise we will stall in about a week or so without additional funding :((

At the same time I'm having great fun at work, writing some reports, proofreading others etc. And there's very little time for anything else. The other day my sister asked me to take her out to see the new episode of the Star Wars movie. But she'll have to wait till the weekend.

Well, any advice on remodelling/repairs is more than welcome!!!!!

Finally Found Myself!

2005-04-17T18:05:00.000+03:00

Next week will be one month since i found a new job as a financial analyst. I guess this is the kind of job I wanted but didn't know about :)

I am planning to get a CFA title in the next few years and a Master's degree, so there's plenty of room for self-development.

Just one note to my former employers: Thanks a lot for taking me to London, but it's a shame this whole thing ended much like a sham.

I am moving on!!!!

Working the Land 2005

2005-04-17T17:54:00.000+03:00

Hey, it's spring time!... which means guess what? that's right - going to the countryside and digging in the agricultural domain!

In Moldova, at least :) After about 5 years or so of physical inactivity, I finally got to work with the spade, the rake and the hoe! Lucky for me, not all at once. Yesterday Sasha and I were helping my mother to plant the potatoes and onions, so that next winter we don't have to pay a fortune for imported ones, or to waste our money on rotten produce from various dishonest retailers in the city markets.

There is a trade-off however... Pain! But the positive effects by far outweigh it: fresh air, total relaxation in between the "exercises", watching the wildlife (birds, mostly), and having home-grown almost ecologically clean produce!

StumbleUpon

2005-04-09T23:54:00.000+03:00

A couple of days ago I downloaded the StumbleUpon extension for my Firefox browser, and it turned out to be one of the best things on the web!!! It is so useful when you want to find out something new, or simply browse the Internet. It suggests you websites according to your preferences and lets you rate any website you like or don't like. There is so much out there, and it's all waiting for you!!!

When I made the last week's entry, I forgot to mention that March 18th was Sasha's and my 10th anniversary since our first date. it might seem not too much to some people, but considering that we're only 24 years old and only got married last summer... We went through school and university together and I am glad we're still by each other's side.

Getting On with Life

2005-04-02T23:46:00.000+03:00

Hey, it's been, like, ages since the last post! again :-(

Oh well. Since then, the Moldovan parliament has been elected and candidates for the president registered (both Communists). But from my personal prospective, the most important event was the attainment of a new job. At last, I have found a professional occupation that fits my educational profile and personal aspirations (and pays well too): I am a financial analyst. The next step for me is to gain a CFA title and a Master's degree. On the more intimate side of my life, Sasha and I will soon have a place of our own to live in, where we are planning a major remodelling and can't imagine how we are going to pull this off! You know that home repairs never end, don't you? I just hate to think that for the next year we will have to deal with a lot of rubbsh, dust, noise, paint, desperate shopping and a bunch of other things that are usually associated with such projects.

My American friend Dennis visited Moldova for the second time in his life. I saw him for the first time this March. Last time when he came, sasha and I were in London! Dennis and I met on the internet, where he came across my website about Moldova. He is the second person with whom I met after making friends over the Internet through my website. I just love this Network.

Today I have tried the Keywhole global mapping application, you can find it on Google. Unfortunately, it is only useful for looking up places in the US and some other places (Iraq, Afghanistan, some of Europe). Moldova is very underepresented. Anyway, I got a 14-day free trial and a map of Mars too! Well, Mars is more interesiting to my little sister than to me but anyway...

Well, time to go to bed! Take care!

Power to the People!!!!

2005-03-06T12:37:00.000+02:00

I have fulfilled my citizen's duty - voted in todays parliamentary elections. I will not tell whom I voted for though, sorry.

It is so funny how Russian media and politicians are so fussy about OUR elections. They are so p***ed off by the fact that the Communists, who won the previous elections in 2001 promising a closer tie to Russia, have eventually turned away, seeking support in the West. Moldovan authorities didn't even invite any Russian observers to the elections, and apparently banned the ones who decided to come on their own from entering the country.

While I personally think that Russian observers should have been invited, I am appalled by the fact that this has prompted the Russians to try and pressure Moldova. For example, the Russian Duma has been urging the Russian government to impose sanctions against Moldova on the grounds that Moldova is 'blockading' Transnistria. This is ridiculous. Russia doesn't even recognise Transnistria (and no ther country does).

Back off, Russia!

Home Sweet Home

2005-02-07T19:19:00.000+02:00

Well, I am finally home, and this time, by HOME I mean Moldova, and not a house of my own (not even rented). Sasha and I were dreading the moment we had to face the Moldovan customs controls in the Chisinau Airport. To our BIG surprise, not only did we have a smooth landing and passport control (although it did take about 5 minutes to have each of our passports checked and registered), but we even didn’t have to open our luggage and explain what we are carrying. To anyone who has ever traveled through Moldovan customs, this will come as a shock. Especially after we had 3 passport controls with personal body searches when we were leaving.

Otherwise Moldova has prepared a very cold welcome to us: after we had arrived, the temperatures dropped below -10C (and they were positive before we came).

The Lost Meaning of the .md Domain

2005-01-26T15:11:00.000+02:00

I've been trying to find out the prices for .md domain websites - the domain attributed to the Republic of Moldova. Sadly, though, most companies that provide .md domain registration services market this domain as a medical one, without mentioning that it is a national domain. This is very sad indeed.

Moldova vs. the Maldives - 1:1

2005-01-21T09:56:00.000+02:00

Today I heard from a friend in Moldova about a letter sent to her from Germany. Although the letter's destination was clearly marked as Moldova, when it finally arrived to Moldova, it had the Maldives' Postal markings all over. So people definitely need to know more about Moldova.

Last week I finally met a new friend, with whom I became acquainted over the internet via my website - James Weatherlake. This young man has worked in many countries through various UN projects, one of those countries being Moldova. I was very glad to see his interest in my country and we had a nice conversation discussing various traits of Moldovan and British people. Unfortunately, I will go back to Moldova pretty soon, and James will go to France and then - who knows where, so we will not meet again in a while. Well, James, if you're reading, best wishes to you and visit us some time in Moldova!

Web Search Surprises

2005-01-07T19:49:00.000+02:00

No posts since last year, wow!

I've been updating my website in the past several days, and yesterday I updated the hit counter statistics links. So today I went to check if anyone has visited my website since yesterday. And it turns out, they have!

Unfortunately, the people were looking for wrong stuff! Well, you could argue that I just didn't have the right stuff. One person searched for "things to do in Moldova" on Yahoo and found my "Good things about Moldova" page, and the other one searched for "what mountains are in Moldova" on Google and found the "Legend" page. What a shame I didn't satisfy people's needs. I guess these searches will append my "to do" list.

Bigger Issue

2004-12-30T20:22:00.000+02:00

As I was watching the TV last night, I saw many reports from South-East Asia, where the giant tidal wave is said to have killed over 100,000 people, and many more may die from disease and exposure. Just makes me feel that whatever I am writing about here, isn't that important, when thousands of people are dying as I am typing these lines.

An Article from The Kinston Free Press

2004-12-30T12:14:00.000+02:00

I received the following article [The Kinston Free Press] in a Google News Alert about Moldova today. I think it is a very good one for reading by someone from the West. I have requested the permission to publish this article on my website, but until I get that, please use the link provided.

Childhood Despair

2004-12-29T14:01:00.000+02:00

A couple of weeks ago Sasha and I were walking around East London, returning home from Victoria Park. Along the way, we came across the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. The museum was packed with toys and games from various periods.

Last week and yesterday we went to the Science Museum (it's quite big so we'll come back again, as we haven't seen all yet). The museum is super! Lots of stuff to see and to read (unfortunately, standing up). And as amazing as the exhibitions, was the museum shop, with hundreds of books for kids and various toys and gadgets with a scientific twist. This shop had everything I ever wanted when I was a child. Especially airplane kits and origami books. It's so sad that even now children in Moldova and dozens of other countries don't have access to such resources as books, DIY, educational games etc. Not even at least on a birthday or Christmas. Even I would like to have some stuff from that shop now and spend some time making airplanes and reading about space or dinosaurs.

Castles and Maniacs.....

2004-12-29T13:12:00.000+02:00

So, another long break. So long that I won't even bother remembering the days that passed. Instead I'll begin with the Christmas weekend (it was Christmas in this part of the world, although back home in Moldova it will happen on the 7th of January when the Christian Orhtodox Curch celebrates it).

On the Christmas day (December 25th) Sasha and I went on a tour to Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath. It was the only option we saw a few months back, because there's nothing else for us to do as our families are far away. So we booked the tour. The first surprise came on Friday the 24th, when the tour people said they could pick us up at the Strand as opposed to where we live (and we live in East London). That wouldn't be a problem normally, but not on a Christmas day, when ALL public transport is off duty (except taxis, which are expensive in London, and even more so on Christmas day). Luckily, we had walked to Strand before and knew it was possible without getting too tired, so we decided to walk. It only (!) took us an hour to get there, after having got up at 5:30 in the morning to get there in time.

As I am writing these lines, there's a guy on a terrace in the building across the street, smoking, listening to some music and dancing. He's been doing it for the last 10 minutes or so, and I keep seeing him (he's just above the screen in my line of sight). This is so distracting.

So, back to the Christmas day adventures, shall we? So we got to the Strand, got picked up, went on the tour, in a coach (that's how the English call a tour-type bus) packed with Americans (there was only one other family not from the USA, but from....Canada!). The tour was fine, except for some overdemanding expectations on my side. First, I thought we would have a Christmas dinner at the Windsor Castle. It turns out that it is a real-time residence of the Queen of England! And she wasn't expecting us. So all we got to do was look through the steel bars of the castle gates. Then we drove to the Stonehenge, which was further away from the fence than I thought. I knew it was fenced, but I didn't expect it to be that far from the viewers. And the walkway around the fence was very narrow (squeezed between the fence and the road), and muddy too. And then we went to Bath, which is indeed a beautiful town. Unfortunately it was very cold and quite dark by that time, so there weren't too many pictures taken. Also, the bus broke halfway through the trip. Luckily a replacement bus picked us up on the way back, but still, we returend to London about 2-3 hours behind schedule.

We were dropped off the bus at the same location as we were picked up in the morning, so we decided to walk back as well. BAD idea!!!! Why? Because London seems to be overpopulated by maniacs and psychoes, that's why. You may have heard that last week there were 6 knife attacks by a mental guy in London. So as we were walking along the Fleet Street (the street that leads from the Strand to St Paul's Cathedral), there was a guy across the street, shouting out something to the few people passing by. So we walked on. A few minutes later, we heard him again: what do you know - he's following us on the other side of the street swearing at us for some reason. And, there's no police, no cabs, no people. As we approached St Paul's Cathedral, we saw a family taking pictures of themeselves with the Cathedral in the background. So the best thing to do, in my opinion, was to ask for their help. Luckily for us, they agreed and drove us in their car a few blocks further, away from the weird dude. That's the short version. I am so thankful to the people who helped us despite the lack of space in their car, and who didn't hesitate to help us in this situation. Now I don't even know if it was a bad experience or a good one. Any suggestions?

A Little Step Forward

2004-12-02T13:49:00.000+02:00

Today I negotiated business for the first time. Well, I didn't really negotiate, we just reviewed what our companies might want from each other. But it is a small advance in my work experience. Up until now I only did desk jobs, and thus, I lack communication skills badly (except for the skills of using e-mail :).

I wonder, is my blog the worst out there? When I had my thoughts page on my website, it was simpler: my page - my thoughts - who cares. But now I'm in a sort of a 'public domain', and I have doubts whether I'm just littering the Net with unworthy writing. Nobody reads it anyway. So I guess it doesn't matter then... :)

"On Lake Nicaragua" Poem

2004-12-02T02:35:00.000+02:00

I read this poem on the London Underground Train (they have this "Poems on the underground" campaign) and liked it a lot, so I dug it up on the Internet and posted it here. Enjoy.

On Lake Nicaragua

by Ernesto Cardenal

Slow cargo-launch, midnight, mid-lake,
bound from San Miguelito to Granada.
The lights ahead not yet in sight,
the dwindling ones behind completely gone.
Only the stars
(the mast a finger pointing to the Seven Sisters)
and the moon, rising above Chontales.

Another launch (just one red light) goes by
and sinks into the night.
We, for them:
another red light sinking into the night....

And I, watching the stars, lying on the deck
between bunches of bananas and Chontales cheeses,
wonder: perhaps there's one that is an earth like ours
and someone's watching me (watching the stars)
from another launch, on another night, on another lake.

The Food Issue Revisited

2004-11-30T12:40:00.000+02:00

Only a couple of days after complaining about the English food, Sasha and I went to a dinner with my old friends - Tom and Andrew, (Tom just happens to be English). During the dinner the food topic came up and Tom asked, what food is traditional in Moldova. Well, this was really unexpected, but even more unexpected was my unpreparedness to actually answer that question. Not for too long though, as we did remember what we ate at home, but how could we explain what food we normally eat? We don't possess the necessary vocabulary for this, so I guess Tom didn't get a satisfactory answer anyway.

However, this short incident stimulated us to actually cook a Moldovan dish - "Placinte" [ple-chin-teh] - a sort of pancake wrapped around some filling (which may be anything but traditionally is either potatoes, cabbage or "Brinza" [bryn-zah] - something like cottage cheese, but much drier). Our little experiment was quite successful (I call it an experiment for two reasons: 1. British ingredients always seem to be different from the Moldovan ones, even sugar; 2. We actually have never made any placinte, even in Moldova), and now we are going to make a larger batch and invite Tom and Andrew over to have some of Moldovan traditional food.

Being Bullied by... Russia

2004-11-27T03:53:00.000+02:00

Read this news report: RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY and you'll see why I dislike Russia's recent foreign policy. Moldova is a small and poor country with no bargaining power against any country, especially as big and as economically important as Russia (most of Moldovan exports go to Russia). Russia seems to rival the USA in international bullying.

Symphonic Rock

2004-11-25T21:27:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was our little anniversary - 4 months of marriage. It just coincided with a concert that we listened to at Royal Albert Hall, here in London, - 'Symphonic Rock' performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I've always liked the way rock sounds when performed by a symphonic orchestra (I guess it's no longer rock then :).

We booked our tickets on the internet from Albert Hall's website and to my disappointment, we had to pay extra £2.95 'administration fee'. Considering that the tickets cost us £20 in total, the fee was almost 15%. I think it's too much. It should rather be a percentage. If I were richer and ordered two £45 tickets, I would have paid the same £2.95, or just over 3%. Come on, why should the richer people pay less? (or rather, why should the not os rich people pay more? :)

The Food Issue

2004-11-24T02:35:00.000+02:00

Having spent over 2 months in London, we still can't understand why English food is so bad (and it seems to be a common belief, that the English can't cook). Really, what is the most typical English dish? Fish and chips? Or tastless thinnest slice of meat drowned in gravy with a bunch of even more tasteless boiled vegetables? Apart from that, you can have Italian, Chinese, Indian, Thai etc. cuisine in UK, but nothing British that could measure up in taste (at least I haven't found it yet). In Moldova, most people cook for themselves (as opposed to eating out on a regular basis) and the range of dishes is very wide. When we first came to London we thought we wouldn't be stuck to English food (no offense to the English people). But even if we can cook all sorts of meat and poultry, there seems to be very little choice of fish in local supermarkets, and even fewer options in side dishes, which are actually limited to potatoes, pasta, rice and vegetables. Apart from these there are no other substitutes, whereas at home we can have at least half a dozen of different kinds of groats (I think this is the word), plus all the above. For such a rich nation, lagging behind in cuisine is not the right choice. And Heinz beans don't count! :)

A Fresh feeling

2004-11-23T03:52:00.000+02:00

It's still pretty exciting for me to have a 'proper' blog, not some home-made page that I used to have (and still have, but not for too long I hope).

Last weekend we had another trip to London. We do live in London, but five days a week we only go to work and back, so don't see much really. On Saturday we decided to see one of the main attractions of London that we hadn't yet seen - the Harrods superstore. Well, the term 'to see' fits best in this case, because luxury shopping is for someone with (loads of) money, and we actually had about 50 dollars in our account and about 100 pounds in our wallets - not exactly the amount to go shopping to Harrods. However, the most interesting part of the day was not seeing the Harrods itself, but rather trying to find it. We support the view that a city like London must bee seen and watched as much as possible, as opposed to staying at home or taking the underground or bus on the weekends when there's no immediate rush. So we took the train to the Charing Cross station - right next to the Trafalgar Square, and decided to find our way to Harrods from there.

Having the map of London with us, we decided to not look at it unless extremely necessary. In this manner, we got to the Piccadily Circus, then around the Soho, through the street with all sorts of XXX-rated attractions and back to the Piccadily Circus. This is when we thought a little help from the map was probably necessary. A couple of hours later we actually got there, but were so tired that only saw two floors of this store, and took an underground train home.

The Sunday was not so adventurous: we went to the London Aquarium which is 'buried' under the London Eye. Frankly, I was expecting something more impressive. But maybe I had too big expectations. Anyway, we took some photos of the colourful coral fish, made a couple of short clips with sharks swimming around a big tank, and then went to take a picture of the Houses of Parliament in the dusk, as it looks absolutely magnificient in spotlights.

I am still trying to figure out a way to publish the photographs we have taken in the past few weeks, especially the ones from Scotland. But I don't even have time to process and arrange them. I guess I will stick to Yahoo's Photo Album service, because it's the only one I know that is free.

Moving around...

2004-11-19T01:07:00.000+02:00

I finally chose to move my blog to a dedicated service provider. I was in doubt whether I wanted to do it or not, but since my own web page is currently undergoing some changes on my computer and is not being updated, I decided to separate the blog from the rest of it. It will take a while for me to get used to the new look of it and to customise this new look to fit in with my web page design, so please be patient.

Last wekend Sasha and I went to Scotland. I spent 2 years in UK in 1997-99 and never got out to see any sights (except 'rural' Wales). So this time I wouldn't forgive myself for not going to Caledonia (as Romans called Scotland). It was a fun 3 days, with a lot of impressions and some 350-400 photos. Luckily, all of them are digital, otherwise I'd have to spend a fortune on printing them out in London - the prices for photographic services are way too high in this part of the world.

As this is my first post in this blog, I will not write too much, just in case it doesn't work and I lose all this small typing effort (maybe it's time for me to become more optimistic :)