Bucharest Babel Blog

Today was the first working day for the 35 euro-parliamentarians, intended to represent Romania in the European Parliament after the elections on 25th of November.

There has been no miracle after these 120 days of negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade on the definition of a status in Kosovo. No agreement came out of these three last days of hectic negotiations in Baden near Vienna, Austria. No independence or even autonomy. No settlement on the status. Only remain the international protectorate and fears for the future.

Every single minute, one person commits suicide - worldwide. On Tuesday, 2 October, 06:02, this person was a 12 year old child from Romania. He decided not to live any more because he found no solution to his mother’s leaving. A potential scenario to be followed by any of the 60.000 children confronted with the same problem.

1st of December, the National Day of Romania, is, or at least should be, a day of joy and fun, a day for celebrating our history and realizing how many things we enjoy now, 89 years after the accomplishment of our national dream.

The second summit between the European Union and Africa is scheduled for the 8th and 9th of December - but will it really take place? Yet, at the head of the European Union until the end of 2007, Portugal has been working very hard on it. Lisbon was already the main instigator of the first official meeting between the European Union and Africa in 2000, in Cairo (Egypt). One of the top priorities of he EU was to counter the ever-growing presence of China in African economies.

25th November - the date for the European Parliament Elections is approaching, so the electoral campaign is becoming more intense. Besides of making use of the Romanian crisis in Italy for drawing the debate into their favour, two of the most important parties brought last week to Romania, international guests to support them.

For the last weeks, the Romanian political scene was split by the disputes on organizing in the same day the referendum for the uninominal voting system and the European Parliament elections, especially because there will be used different human and financial resources for each ballot.

Can the external look of the chemistry and journalism departments of the oldest Romanian university have an impact on how you study? Can the lighting, colours, decoration, symbols or general 'look' of a department influence the education process?

Starting with Sunday, October 21st, The International Showroom of Photography Art from Sibiu is celebrating its XII edition. With this occasion, The International Federation of Photography Art is awarding the organisers with a bronze medal.

We are being told that the more we study now, the more comfortable we’ll live later. We are being told to invest in our career. To participate at courses, trainings, internships, all kind of activities that can put you in competition with others like you. But nothing guaranties that once the university graduated we’ll obtain a well paid job, or we’ll manage to build a successful career, or even that we’ll work in the same field as the one we studied for. But also we don’t have to accept anything that comes in second hand. If you did study a lot, think about what you have learned and what you can use it for. Maybe somewhere in the future, it will be us the ones who rise the statistics for studies abroad, or the high quoted jobs!