Cav's Place

To start with Sunday, I attended the Victory Square protest again, leaving after the first round of the day’s ski jumping and therefore missing the first part of the second, since none of the recordings I caught that night or the next day included it. Not that much of anything happened in the Square early enough to justify leaving when I did, but leaving after the competition would have meant ending up there at around the same time as a week before and that didn’t seem right, considering the difference in conditions. So I pretty much wandered around, took some pictures, eventually managed to ask for one of the badges that were being handed out, and accepted a blue sheet of paper even though I had no intention of participating in the flag moment. Hid that under my jacket and went just past the edge of the crowd when the moment came, then got back inside to look for a few more picture opportunities before it was actually over, gave the sheet of paper back and took a cup of hot tea from those still offering that a bit later, and eventually made my way away around 9:40 PM, 9:45 PM when I actually got in the metro station.

Still on the topic of protests, also attended the one for forests that took place Tuesday for a little while. Managed to get there just a couple of minutes past 5 PM, but only saw one person waiting in that spot and a couple more in the area, seeming to wait for more to gather before revealing their purpose for being there. So I kept walking and circled around after reaching the corner, eventually sitting on a bench after getting back and only joining the small group after a few more had gathered and the others had as well. Again took pictures, albeit just a few, but otherwise pretty much listened to what the gendarmes who showed up after we moved to the sidewalk said and tried to get a few words in, since there was no actual conflict with them at the time but I seemed to be the only one there with some experience regarding such things, and then left at 6 PM, when the time for talks seemed over and other gendarmes came to start carding the participants. Since two others had left just before me, I caught up to them on the way to the metro station, listened to their conversation and also somehow managed to say a few things before leaving.
Those protests became daily from that point, but I didn’t attend another and now, considering the chosen focus, I’m not keen on attending the other one scheduled for Sunday either. Was sort of considering going to this one for forests again then instead, but I just made it clear a bit ago in a comment I posted that I have serious issues with the other participants, so that’s pretty much out of the question. I feel completely uncomfortable around them and being in conflict with the other participants, even without either side actually saying it while there, is not what you want when just a few attend and you can’t get lost in the crowd. I mean, albeit truly dedicated to the cause of forests, I knew the organizers were from a group of nationalists that also promote and genuinely believe in various conspiracy theories, and that they now also associated with those who staged the counter-protest on Sunday, but was thinking I’ll be there for the cause and hope they’ll do the same, yet the messages that keep being posted since are exactly on the line that’s unfortunately expected from them, throwing accusations at those who participate in other protests or just don’t see things just the way they do, promoting those conspiracy theories and so on.

To finally move on to something else, after having issues but still being playable at first, since the stuttering graphics meant that many frames were skipped between those that were displayed and not that the game was slow, Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic stopped working completely Monday. Had last played a little after eating Saturday night, didn’t try again Sunday, and then when I tried to start it Monday, I just got a black screen with the regular mouse cursor visible. The process also uses about half the amount of RAM it did when it worked and usually, though not every time, takes up very little of the CPU, while when it worked it took up a full core. Don’t recall changing any settings, whether the game’s or the system’s, or doing anything else which may have in any way caused this, so I’m at a loss. One solution would be to simply reboot and see what happens, of course, as I was saying there may be a chance that may solve the other issue as well, and as of Tuesday I actually need to do that for another reason as well, but with the uptime I have I just don’t want to until after this month’s patch Tuesday if there’s any way to still avoid it.
Unfortunately, that other reason I mentioned is that Emsisoft decided to update on Tuesday, the delayed branch being moved to another version as well, and that happened while I wasn’t at the computer and, whether the update actually required a reboot or it skipped properly restarting just the software because I wasn’t there to accept the prompt before it timed out, the update wasn’t actually applied and now a restart is required for it. There’s no warning to say I have limited protection or need to restart and it otherwise appears to still be active, but automatic updating doesn’t function anymore, which is the normal behavior when a program update is pending. It still seems to update definitions when I do a manual update though, and support said it should still do that for a while if I really want to delay, so I’m hoping I don’t actually have reduced protection and plan to wait… And say again and again that I hate updates and absolutely can’t stand forced ones. Been pestering the poor guy for program updates to be separated from definitions updates and the user to be allowed to delay those until they’re ready for them all along and he again said he definitely passed on the suggestion, but it’s not like that’ll get anywhere, is it?

As for the last part of this post’s title, that happened Wednesday evening. Went to buy a few things, again looking for the best options and prices despite the small number of products, so I first checked one hypermarket, then went to another and bought what I could from there, got back in time to see about half of the day’s ski jumping event, then left again to get what was left from the first one. Meant to hurry and it seemed to go well enough, but after picking up the items I wanted to look for one more little thing, so after struggling to carry the items in my hands until then I dropped them in a basket and wandered around for quite some time before eventually deciding to give up, no longer caring for the first tiny thing I had in mind and not finding the second.
Well, that’s when a problem appeared. I knew exactly how much the items cost, but the cashier told me a higher amount and I couldn’t get myself to complain on the spot, so I paid and then walked a few steps away to check the receipt, finding a regular small yogurt added before the pack I had actually bought. And those 0.90 RON (€0.20, $0.21) meant I no longer had the amount of money I wanted to have left for something else, so I somehow managed to turn around and ask why did she scan an extra yogurt, also noticing she seemed to be calling someone to correct something for the next customer as well. But instead of trying to fix it there, she told me to go to the customer reception desk with the receipt, so I went there, somehow managed to explain what the issue was, stating rather apologetically that it’s just to keep things fair, and the person immediately realized that one of the yogurts in the pack must have passed in front of the scanner while being positioned in such a way that the code accidentally scanned and gave me the little amount of money back, saying she doesn’t need to check to see that I don’t actually have a small yogurt on top of the pack. She did take the receipt though, not giving a correct one back.
The thing is that speaking the way I did was way too much for me, so I may have somehow managed it, but then I had to pay the price, first by having absolutely no idea where I had put the money I had left, as in not the little amount just given back. So I stopped on the way to the metro station and started checking every pocket, eventually sighing in relief when I found them in my jacket, between the folds of the unused bag I had also put in there. Then I got to the metro, noticing that the stop had caused me to just miss one train, waited for the next, struggled to keep my mind from shutting down long enough to be aware of reaching my stop… And failed, just barely clinging on to some shred of awareness for five stops but then apparently just blocking everything, probably after more people got on and a girl also sat next to me, so I had people on both sides. There was one more stop I was only barely aware of, thinking it must be the one right after the last one I remembered more clearly, but I guess that wasn’t the case, and either way I only actually snapped out of it after passing my stop and hearing the announcement for the next one. So I climbed off there and then waited to take the train back, not trusting myself to walk the additional distance in that state.

Just one more thing to add to this post, and that’s this week’s run, which was Tuesday, just before leaving for that protest. This was also the reason why I wasn’t at the computer when Emsisoft updated, though now I’m frustrated by the fact that I may have just gotten back to my room before that prompt vanished, assuming there was one asking for a program restart, so I could have accepted that and it might have worked if I’d have just turned on the monitor to notice. And I did consider it, wanting to check whether something new had been posted on the event page, but I really had to leave again right away if I wanted to get there on time, so just changed clothes in a hurry, went to the bathroom and left.
Either way, this marked the second time I ran the ten-kilometer route in under 50 minutes, the time being 49:38, so ten seconds slower than the record. Sector times were 4:25, 5:16, 6:05, 4:38, 5:10, 6:10, 4:42, 5:14, 6:05 and 1:53, making for lap times of 15:46, 15:58 and 16:01. That means the fastest third lap so far, but still just failing to keep three in a row under 16 minutes. Conditions were good though, warm enough to run with just t-shirt on, also marking the first time I wore the half marathon t-shirt since the actual race even though I was thinking at the time that it’ll become my running t-shirt in general. Went there wearing the upper part of the training suit as well though, so took it off before I started running and then held it in my hand, which might have slowed me just a little, but the people also enjoying the nice day had a greater impact. Still, I was on the limit, so I don’t know whether I could have beaten the record either way.

Picking up from where the previous report left off, I’ll start this one with Saturday, February 18, when children and parents were again called to Victory Square. Up to 500 people attended, children writing messages with chalk on the pavement, one of the messages also being created with flowerpots after being written with large letters. After that, during the evening’s protest, similar or perhaps slightly larger numbers participated, reports going to 600 or even 700. Candles were also placed on the large message left from the children’s protest, where flowerpots had been hours earlier.

The next Sunday protest was a subdued affair due to the constant rain, on top of the temperature only a little above freezing. Under those circumstances, though the main event was calling people to Victory Square from 7 PM and another even from 6 PM, a message that was shared stated that we should at least be there between 8 PM and 9:30 PM, so not staying that long and reducing the risk of some leaving by the time others arrive, for the peak to be more relevant when the turnout was obviously expected to be low. And it was when you compare it to the previous numbers, but about 2500 or, according to some, 3000 seemed good enough for me, considering the conditions. For the first time since the January 29 march, I also took some pictures.

The one more notable day from this point of view before the following Sunday was Tuesday, February 21, when the Parliament finally formally rejected OUG 13, which is what these protests started from, and approved OUG 14, though which the Government had repealed OUG 13 on February 5. A few hundred people, reasonable estimates going to about 400, were in Victory Square that evening, some to celebrate the decision in a way, but with most of the measures that initially triggered the protests being set to be passed through the Parliament as regular laws and the PSD+ALDE coalition having majority, it definitely doesn’t mean it’s over even when it comes only to these particular issues.
Otherwise, there have been people in the Square every day, a few even during the day, but the numbers were low each evening, so I’ll just go through the list of reports quickly, starting with Monday, February 20, when most sources mentioned only dozens of participants, with one TV station that supports these protests going as high as 150. For Wednesday I saw reports of around or maybe slightly over 100. Then the regular sources stopped covering the daily protests, so I resorted to an independent source that focuses a lot on protests in general, but their numbers seem inflated, so I’m just posting the fact that they mentioned about 200 Thursday and Saturday and maybe up to 300 Friday because they’re the only numbers I have.

Then came another Sunday protest, on February 26, the better conditions also allowing another plan to be set in motion, that being to create the European Union’s flag the same way the Romanian one had been created two weeks before. Unlike last time, since this was also an attempt to counter the accusations of nationalism coming from most known activists then, there were no other such accusations, but also very few messages from known groups or activists mentioning this plan either way, though there was a general note appreciating the fact that the European project is supported, especially considering recent events. There were some complaints from various individuals who are nationalists or have other issues with the European Union, however.
There was also an actual counter-protest that took place on the sidewalk across the Square from the Government, a few people holding large banners there and only leaving after the flag moment, which took place at 9 PM, though a fair number of those participating in the evening’s announced protest had slowly gathered in front of them to complain. Though those large banners attacked institutions that many protesters support, including the justice system in general, some media sources that support the protests, all parties including the new USR, and even supported leaving the European Union and therefore directly opposed the evening’s main idea, I’m not aware of the situation escalating past complaints and occasional shouts, but there was some tension there and gendarmes were monitoring the area carefully. There were cheers mixed with some loud cursing when that group finally left.
Some 5000 people are said to have been in the Square at the peak, so at 9 PM, and I may add the fact that a small group was gathering signatures for a referendum to remove the Mayor of Bucharest, Gabriela Firea, from office. Protesters started leaving rather quickly after the flag moment ended though, so numbers were likely down into the hundreds by 9:40 PM, when I started making my way away as well. Also took pictures again, looking for interesting signs and banners, as there were plenty and the lower turnout meant I could move around and spot them. And yes, most of the large banners from the counter-protest are there as well, though I refused to include a couple.

There were some people still protesting in Victory Square last evening and this evening as well, but just having that one site that may inflate the numbers to resort to for estimates, and they say 200 Monday and 250 today. I also see them mention that signatures for that referendum are still being gathered, though the number required makes the initiative unquestionably doomed and a complete waste of effort and resources.

But this post can’t end here, because a new issue appeared last Wednesday, when discussions about an emergency ordinance adopted last year by the previous government and which established penalties for illegal logging and related activities not covered by other existing laws headed firmly in the direction of at least drastically reducing the fines and increasing allowances, if not repealing it entirely. It must be noted that environmental NGOs were not invited to these discussions, so two days later, on February 24, a common statement firmly rejecting these proposals was released by four of them, including WWF Romania and Greenpeace Romania, plus the coalition whose main objective is identifying and protecting Natura 2000 sites in Romania. People have also been asked since then to send messages to the members of the committees which will discuss the fate of this ordinance, demanding the rejection of the proposals.
And, while a few people had signs mentioning the matter on Sunday as well, a first protest actually regarding this issue took place today at Izvor park, in front of the Parliament. In fact, those who had showed up to stage the counter-protest Sunday evening were the first ones there, at 9 AM, displaying those same banners for a little while, as one of them admittedly mentions the matter of deforestation, though it portrays the EU as the culprit. The main protest was later, yet sadly, with a start time listed as 5 PM and on a weekday, the turnout couldn’t be expected to be high and only about 20 people showed up by 6 PM, when gendarmes started carding those who were there and I left, along with a few others. So the pictures I took are limited to what I saw until that point, though somebody said others remained a while longer and I found what was a live video of what appears to be the actual end of the evening’s protest, ending shortly before 7 PM. A few who could only arrive a fair bit later, after 7:30 PM, posted annoyed messages and pictures showing that they found nobody else there.

Been meaning to add a personal post here since Wednesday evening, after this week’s run and the uptime getting over 70 days, but then left it for Thursday, then for yesterday, then pushed a bit more then in order to finish reading Enemy of Man that evening and be able to add the quick review for it as this week’s first post in order to delay this for one more day. But now I’m out of options, because on top of the usual idea of avoiding a Sunday update, I’ll be going to the protest tomorrow evening again of course, so no way I’ll be writing anything then.

Since I mentioned tomorrow’s protest, let’s take things in order and start with last Sunday’s, when I also went despite the rain and needing to walk there again, since the metro card had expired and dad hadn’t bought another yet. Left later than usual, around 7 PM, but there were posts to at least be there between 8 PM and 9:30 PM, so for less time but show we still have our eyes on them despite the conditions, and that’s what I aimed for, more or less, managing to get there at 8:10 PM. Was soaked, but more or less wandered around the crowd and actually, for the first time since the January 29 march, I took pictures. Yes, I took my camera out in the cold pouring rain, but it did its job, so I took those pictures, grabbed a hot tea after 9 PM from those offering it, and a bit after 9:30 PM I slowly made my way away, first going to the metro station to have a roof over my head while taking the batteries out of the camera, then walking for 15 minutes or so to the bus stop.
Of course, I could have walked back the same way I walked there, and I was already soaking wet, but I do still have a few trips on that bus card, so chose to go that route… Only to turn the corner and see the bus I needed just leave the station, leaving me to wonder whether I should wait for the next one or take the other one, which has the same route until two stops away from where I’d be getting off the right one. And, considering what happened last time, when I waited for 35 minutes and no other bus of that number came, I picked the latter option, got off where the route stops being common… And barely a minute later saw another bus of the right kind go past me, so waiting just a little longer would have meant not needing to walk two more stops on the way back.

Another problem was that I apparently did something to my right ankle that evening, though it is possible that it’s just a matter of the boots pressing against it in some wrong way, since it wasn’t exactly hurting while walking otherwise. But I had to go get myself bread Monday, so on went the boots again and then it was quite a struggle. The melting snow definitely didn’t help, but the real issue was that I first, after taking out the recyclables as well, walked to one hypermarket, saw that they didn’t seem to have the kind of bread I wanted even though it was advertised as being on special offer, then walked to another location, where I saw it wasn’t even listed, then walked back to the first one. And when going to that second location I also tried to take a shortcut and ended up in fact making myself walk up to a third more. So, in total, Google Maps said I walked some 9.5 kilometers on streets, plus the distance covered in the stores, and in the malls they’re in.
There was a point during the walk when the ankle seemed to be getting a bit better, but after leaving that second location it really wanted to remind me that I was pushing when I shouldn’t and it kept getting worse. Still, eventually managed to get myself to ask after I got back to the first location and was told that the kind of bread I wanted was actually there, but it sure didn’t look like it, nor does it taste or feel like it. Still, I got myself bread for ten days, some cabbage that should last me until perhaps the middle of next week, and then some yogurt as well which, added to what I already had, should last until at least March 10, all discounted and coming to a total of 9.99 RON when I had 10 and a bit, and didn’t particularly care to spend that loose change as well. The ankle really didn’t like the added weight on the way back though, feeling like something was going to give before I reached the building, but it didn’t and it’s been well enough since, though there are still some situations in which it hurts a bit.

Monday evening I also started that ebook I picked up for free at some point last year, finishing it yesterday. And Tuesday I installed Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, which led to a scary moment when it kept trying to do things I really don’t know why it needs to do and Comodo kept asking me about it, leading to a conflict that caused my computer to freeze, the screen being black and nothing responding. With an uptime of over 69 days at that moment, so less than a day under ten full weeks, I had one more reason not to want to press the reset button, and also did remember a similar freeze caused by King of Dragon Pass, when I realized Comodo’s HIPS was the reason, so I knew each prompt should clear away, assuming “block” as the answer, after two minutes, and waited… And after some 15 minutes, the game apparently finally gave up, shut down, and the system recovered. After which I saw what the prompts had been about, granted it permissions for protected registry entries and accessing the memory of other applications, though I must again state it really shouldn’t need to go there, and then it worked.
Only actually started playing a bit, and by that I mean the first tutorial scenario despite obviously not needing to go through it at this point, after eating that night though, so I’ll say I started playing it on Wednesday. There is another issue, however, namely the fact that the graphics stutter badly and switching to software mode only fixes the scrolling text at the start of scenarios, once you start actually playing it’s the same. The game isn’t slower though, so it seems to be a matter of only displaying one frame out of quite a number, so it bothers but still allows playing well enough, being a TBS. Read that it may be caused by not having rebooted the computer in a long time, which is definitely my case, but I’m not going to reboot now to test it if I don’t absolutely have to for other reasons.

So let me move to Wednesday, when I ran another ten kilometers, also using my running shoes again, for the first time in quite a while. Was worried about my ankle, still not quite certain even as I was getting ready to leave, and it did bother me a little for a while, but while during the first lap I was thinking I may be risking too much by pushing it, towards the end of the second it tended to stop bothering me and didn’t get worse again later. So the time was 51:42, which is the third fastest on this distance and exactly three minutes faster than last week, in good part thanks to the pretty good conditions and mostly dry path. There was some wind and quite a number of people, but it sure was better than cold and muck and either melting or frozen snow. Sector times were 4:48, 5:25, 6:26, 4:59, 5:26, 6:16, 5:00, 5:24, 6:07 and 1:51, making for lap times of 16:39, 16:41 and 16:31.
Was rather weird before actually getting to run though, since I “managed” to forget my stopwatch and only realized it as I was about to cross the road to get to the park entrance and meant to pull my sleeves over my hands, at which point I noticed that nothing was holding my right one. So I went back for it, but then, since I hadn’t locked the door after coming in and therefore didn’t need to unlock it when going back out, I couldn’t remember whether I had locked it after leaving and was too worried to just keep going. So after just crossing the road here in front of the building, I crossed it back to check, noticing that I had locked it after all, and only then could finally make my way to the park again and actually start the run.

One last thing to say would be that I did somehow get the courage to finally contact that used books store I had found, which advertised purchasing books from people, including coming to their home to evaluate and then pick up, also listing e-mail as contact information and having released information stating that they had a very good 2016. Based on that, I had reason to hope they’ll agree to take these books that are still in these boxes in my room and pay a reasonable amount for those in good condition, but that didn’t get anywhere so far.
Since they also mention donations on that page, in my initial message I said I’d be very willing to donate all but a few of these books, but only to an institution which will then also make them available for free, so that’s only an option if they can intermediate such a donation and make it verifiable, yet it seems they just read that there was something about a donation there and wrote back a thrilled reply thanking me for the donation and saying to call them to pick up the books. When I told them to read my initial message again, and then also repeated my point and that it’d be wrong to donate to someone who’ll then try to sell the donation for profit, they were far less enthusiastic, offered a supposedly maximum price for the few books I particularly mean to sell out of this pile that’s barely half of the minimum I’d be willing to accept, and then didn’t reply again so far after I said that’s too little for those but I’m still waiting for an offer for the rest, or for them to send back a list of those they may be interested in out of the rest. But I sent that message Thursday evening and it’s a long list for them to go through, so I’ll give them until next week, then start looking for places to donate most of these to again if I won’t get an offer from them, or at least not a decent one.

Since this is sadly so rare among self-published books that it pretty much requires mentioning, I’ll start by saying that Enemy of Man is well edited. More notably, however, it’s also properly constructed, not only in terms of the action, which keeps escalating and eventually explodes in a manner which may, in itself, be almost overwhelming, but also because greater depth and complexity is revealed to the reader as the story progresses, the characters develop, the scope expands from the initial focused heroic tale, and bits of information about the huge and intriguing planet, multiple intelligent and semi-intelligent species and even the galaxy itself begin to be presented.
The problems start from the fact that the heroic tale relies too often on the hero’s luck and at times makes even less sense than that in order to allow survival, yet the bigger issue is that this greater complexity and scope is mainly only hinted at, too little actual information about the planet, the species and the events, past and present, being provided. As a result, when it should all come together, there’s little reason to care, and I for one felt that the great escalation, in itself somewhat similar to events which in other books were capable of moving me to tears, pretty much only got in the way, halting or at least being a frustrating complication in the way of the story of the characters that I actually had at least some reason to be interested in. Therefore, while I obviously recognize at a rational level that species and planets and the galaxy are infinitely more important than any characters, I have little interest in the bigger story I gather the rest of the series is about, because this first book failed to make me feel involved in it.

Rating: 3/5

I’ll start this post with something that happened today and is not related to the recent protests taking place here, because it marks a victory in a process started with the May 2015 March for Forests. I’m referring to the announcement that the FSC disassociated itself from the Schweighofer Group, the statement making it clear that the decision is a result of the Group’s violation of standards in their operations in Romania. So another demand of the activists who have maintained this campaign for close to two years now has been met and there is hope for further improvements, as the announcement also states that the FSC intends to “begin to build a permanent presence in Romania […], to identify long term solutions to the challenges of responsible forest management in the country“.

And now let me pick up from where the previous report left off and say that February 10 seems to have started with a flash mob that took place at Unirii metro station in the morning, a handful of people singing the anthem and handing out the list of demands agreed on by some. Then there was the regular protest in Victory Square in the evening, some 5000 or 6000 people attending at the peak, about 5000 attending Saturday evening as well. However, Saturday began with a “marathon of democracy”, reports stating that four people actually managed to run the distance of a complete marathon in the area surrounding the Government, some others joining them at various times and for various distances. In between, one man sat down in Victory Square at 8 PM Friday evening and only left at 8:30 AM Saturday morning, resisting all through the cold night.

The next major protest was once again scheduled for Sunday, February 12, the evening’s “main event” being preceded by a dancing flash mob, handing out fliers with that list of demands I mentioned above as well and a plan to set up boards or large sheets of paper with various questions for participants to write their brief answers to, though I can’t say I saw or heard anything about this last part actually happening, whether when I arrived that evening or in the reports I read later. One of those badly injured in the Colectiv club fire also announced that she’ll celebrate her birthday in the Square that evening.
One problem, on the other hand, was that the “main event” included creating the Romanian flag at 9 PM, participants being asked to hold colored sheets of paper above their heads and light them with their phones or flashlights. For most known activists, this was seen as another dangerous step toward promoting harmful nationalism and also a troubling reminder of the Communist days, so many spoke out firmly against it. It was made clear that it won’t stop them from participating in the protest otherwise, but they definitely won’t take part in that moment, and that was my attitude as well.
About the protest itself, while still stunning compared to anything seen here before this year, it was significantly less massive than the previous ones and, while still creative, it seemed a fair bit more subdued, or at least that was my impression while there. Estimates seem to settle around 50000 participants, though some went as high as 70000, and that peak was reached when the flag was formed. Since I got myself out of the crowd before 9 PM and returned later, to make it perfectly clear that I refused to have anything to do with that moment, I was able to easily see how many people were starting to clear away as soon as it was over, likely due to the cold. The rest tended to remain until the anthem was sung, at 10 PM, and then cleared away as well, not many being left by 10:30 PM, when I left as well. A report mentions only about 100 protesters still in the area at 11 PM.

As for this week, reports mention a peak of about 1000 people in Victory Square Monday and Tuesday evening, some estimates going as high as 1500 for Monday, then the number dropping to maybe some 700 Wednesday and some 500 or 600 Thursday. After “#REZIST” (resist) was spelled in the Square with flowerpots earlier today, estimates mention some 700 protesting during the evening. Those who still attend seem focused on demanding the Government’s resignation and, though I don’t really know this and some were still speaking out against the idea when others were finally realizing, last week, that we should just focus on the weekends because daily protests at this point only exhaust participants and will eventually end up aiding those we’re fighting against, I rather doubt known activists are among them anymore.
The protest in front of the National Audiovisual Council, which was initially scheduled for last week and then delayed, did take place Tuesday evening, but reports state that only a few people attended, which was not surprising. In addition, gendarmes weren’t as friendly with those few as they’ve been with the rest, and there are also reports of the attempted removal of one person who had continued to come to Victory Square in the morning all this time, as he was told that protection fences won’t be placed in the area so early and he can’t be there without them, though a report I’m reading right now mentions that fences weren’t placed in the Square this evening either. And this is on top of the fact that an investigation has been launched and all sorts of weird debates have started regarding those who brought children to the protests, or that those who used drones to take pictures have been identified and charged of operating them without a license or improperly. So, at least so far, no action is being taken against regular protesters, known activists or those who are part of the groups that tried to organize some aspects of these protests, but with numbers dropping, some additional methods meant to discourage people from continuing are beginning to be used.

But since I started this post with a victory in a campaign that’s not related to these recent protests, I guess I’ll be ending it with a defeat in another, and now I’m referring to the fact that the European Parliament approved CETA two days ago. Also, to refer strictly to the failure of the Romanian campaign against this deal, all but two Romanian MEPs voted in favor of it and only one, Laurentiu Rebega, voted against, the other being absent, so those who voted in favor included the few who had expressed concerns about the treaty and even one, Norica Nicolai, who had stated that she opposes it and will vote against. Still, this is not over yet, but there are only a few national or regional Parliaments that we may hope will eventually push back due to the highly troubling aspects that are part of the package, and the Romanian one is not among them.