Cav's Place

The events taking place during this period were largely centered around a proposed change to a law that will allow construction on 85% of the surface of retroceded areas that are currently listed as green spaces. Admittedly, there may have been a problem of wording somewhere along the way, seeing as the amendment states that such areas may be built on if the owner will arrange another plot of land of equal size, offered by the authorities, as a green space or preserve 15% of the area they own as a green space. Change that “or” to “and” and things change significantly, though of course still not enough to make such a proposal acceptable, seeing as, for example, planting some new trees in or around the forest at the outskirts of the city doesn’t under any circumstances make up for clearing 85% of that number of fully grown, large trees in the crowded center.

The first public event related to this issue took place on February 14, starting at 11:30 AM, when representatives of a coalition of NGOs organized a press conference in Izvor Park, during which they also called people to gather around the University Square statues two days later, starting at 4 PM. Somewhat strangely, some activists then created their own event, completely overlapping the one created by this coalition’s page, and while there I even heard some discussions about who the organizers can be said to be and the fact that the United We Save movement “doesn’t recognize” the coalition’s representatives.
Even without the confusion, things were looking terrible until around 4:20 PM, when only around 15 people were present. 15 or 20 minutes later, however, the numbers had grown to around 70, and my highest count at the peak was 105. That’s still very low, but not exactly an embarrassment anymore, especially since hardly anything that would serve to attract or keep people there actually took place. In fact, there was almost nothing to look at except the signs which, as you can also see in my pictures, were placed on the pedestal of one of the statues, and the loudspeakers were only used for a series of speeches even though it’s known that this makes people quickly lose interest, shouts and chants being what may bring them closer and hold them together.
Under those circumstances, and as sad as this sounds, even though by then most had been scattered in small groups and simply chatting for some time, I was rather pleased to see that our numbers had only dropped to around 90 by 5:45 PM, when the event ended with a reminder that the proposed change was to be voted on in the relevant committee on February 18, people being asked to gather in Izvor Park that day at noon. That reminder was also followed by a suggestion to head for a nearby bar, which I found particularly odd, especially since a debate that was also part of the previously-mentioned exhibition dedicated to the fight against fracking was starting at 6 PM and this suggestion came from an activist whose main cause is just this battle.
But to return to the matter at hand, I should also mention that a total of 27 people attended the February 18 event, including the few who only arrived around 1 PM, after a few others had already left and the rest of us were about to do the same, so the maximum number present at any one moment was 24. Particularly unusual was that, while several obvious plainclothes agents never moved more than a few meters away from us, not a single uniformed gendarme was in sight. Admittedly, we quickly learned that the proposal had been moved to another committee, one created only the week before, where it will be voted on at a later date, so we didn’t do anything other than chat with each other while waiting for an official confirmation of this.

The only other event I believe I should mention took place during this period is the fact that one of the anti-fracking groups supporting the hunger strikers obtained the required approvals and a tent was placed in University Square, near the Coltea hospital, where it is set to remain until at least March 9. The first calls for volunteers to man the tent, handing out fliers and informing people about the dangers of fracking, were posted on February 14 and 15, but even without following the developments at all after that point I still saw some urgent messages asking for someone to rush there to cover certain hours.
While I fully support the cause, being one of mine as well, I am somewhat concerned about the end result of this effort. I know what those fliers contain and have some doubts about the relevance and trustworthiness of some of the information presented, particularly from the point of view of the average person, and the occasionally desperate calls, not to mention something that actually happened to me while walking past said tent, make me wonder how knowledgeable the volunteers who end up there are and how appropriate their attitude is.