Surprisingly, I managed to find a tolerable pair of pants yesterday. They’re a hypermarket’s store brand, unfortunately made in Bangladesh and cost more than they should have considering the poor quality, plus that they’re clearly still too large despite being the smallest size available. Still, with a few simple adjustments and a belt they’re at least usable and, perhaps with the exception of the color, more or less exactly the kind I was looking for, which otherwise doesn’t quite seem to be available anymore. In fact, there was only one other place, a specialized store, where I found something similar, or in fact nearly identical, though the quality seemed somewhat better, but the smallest size that seemed to be available there was one above what I could find here and the price was also more than double.
While I was at it, I also got a pair of slippers and two warmer pairs of socks that were cheap enough despite being made here and of 100% cotton, at least according to the label, plus several other things picked up from five different hypermarkets, all but a couple, which were actually also needed, being on the list I had made before leaving, knowing that just about anywhere will be “on my way” that day. Unfortunately, the most expensive item on that list, which I only found in two places, somehow went up in price by exactly 5% between the moment when I first saw it while simply browsing and the moment when I returned there, shortly before closing time, to finish getting everything that was left. That still meant it was cheaper than in the other place, but it sure made for an unpleasant feeling.
All of that required 14 hours of wandering around on an hour and a half of sleep, a bowl of cereal with yogurt and a little chocolate. It also involved 11 trips using the one-day metro card I bought in the morning, plus one using the free bus service offered by the hypermarket I usually go to, though that was about 15 minutes late and made me have to rush to get to the last place I had to get to before closing time, after dropping off everything else since I was already carrying too much by then. Still, I was just paying when the announcement that the store will close in 15 minutes came, so it worked out well in the end, with the exception of that price increase I mentioned above.
Tore both bags I had, the better one, which I had only used a few times, right at the door, when I was rushing to drop everything off before leaving again and forgot to pick up the five-liter jug of liquid soap separately before yanking it off the floor. Also spent over 90% of what I had on me and ended up with my eyes stinging and lots of muscles hurting, but most of those seem to be recovering surprisingly quickly, so that went well enough, especially since I can say I learned a lot about how to get to various places and where it’s worth going if you’re looking for clothes. Also have plenty of options for the winter jacket I also said I was looking for… But may leave that for next year now.
As during the final days of 2013, most protest-related events that took place during these first ten days of 2014 had to do with the hunger strike taking place in front of the Bucharest National Theater. I’m not saying Sandu’s hunger strike anymore because a few others joined him during this period, though I’m not entirely certain about the information I have about them. What I see is that one person joined for seven days, starting on January 2 or 3, and another apparently joined on January 5 and is still there. There was a report of another person joining on January 8, but I’m not seeing it confirmed at the moment, plus several reports of another who insisted on joining as well but who was turned away by the other activists because he was only 17.
Admittedly, all of these details would be quite easy to confirm by simply going there, or otherwise by thoroughly checking all the various pages, groups and events, the site created to support the strikers and the posts written by all activists who regularly go there to ensure the strikers are never alone. However, seeing as the politicians don’t care about the strike in the least and the mainstream media barely mentions it, I see no purpose in continuing the hunger strike at the moment and, to be perfectly blunt, am driven away from the entire movement by this focus on supporting the strikers instead of persuading them, or at the very least Sandu, to stop. All that’s happening now is that some determined activists are weakening themselves, likely reaching a state that won’t even allow them to recover well enough in time to take part in future actions, because it’s clear that, if Sandu’s three weeks, so far, of hunger strike weren’t even enough to get the desired kind of attention, nothing will come of it unless he’ll die, and if he truly is willing to give his life for the cause then I can think of far more efficient ways to do it.
Still, while I’m at it I should also mention that his condition is obviously worsening, he fainted and required some medical attention multiple times. While the behavior of others was appreciated by witnesses, there was at least one notable situation when a doctor who arrived treated him dreadfully, refused to hand him a copy of the test results and told him the authorities disapprove of his actions and that medical personnel won’t assist him in killing himself. The Police also caused some problems and the gendarmes still don’t seem to be helping when others are harassing or otherwise disturbing him, but the small group of activists who focus on supporting this strike do seem to have organized themselves more or less properly in order to be able to step in whenever needed.
As far as calls for specific actions go, there were some for a “small but efficient” protest coming from some who saw how that doctor treated Sandu and others, coming from another group, calling people to gather on January 5, but I’m not aware of anything actually happening as a result. An open letter also started circulating and, after some messages called people to gather around the hunger strikers on January 9 to write, or at least sign, a petition in support of their cause, this petition was delivered to the Parliament slightly later that same day. Later, the event was turned into a generic one, calling people to simply take actions in support of the strikers and their cause. Other calls I’m seeing now are for people to continue asking the mainstream media to cover the topic and to help man an information stand that some activists are setting up in the area, to inform people about the risks of fracking. Last but not least, on January 9 people were asked to once again gather in the area on January 12, not only to show support for the hunger strikers but also to help create signs and banners for the next protests.
To finally move on to other matters, the known activists and the movement’s “official” page made note of the January 7 protest staged by library workers against the Government’s decision to incorporate the National Pedagogic Library into the Central University Library even though the latter doesn’t even have the available space for more than a small fraction of the former’s books. In addition, a message which was also shared in the same way asked people to take part in some public debates regarding certain controversial development plans, which were to take place at the Bucharest City Hall, the first starting at 11 AM on January 10.
As for announcements of future events, a psychologist’s message, asking for help to launch a campaign informing 12th grade and college students about politics, rights and responsibilities and other related issues, was being shared at one point. What’s hoped to be the next major protest, scheduled for February 8, was announced on January 8, though at this point it seems that the call is largely only coming from the more “hardcore” activists and it remains to be seen how the situation will develop. Last but not least, two more calls came on January 9, one presenting a draft of a protest letter on the issue of fracking meant to be delivered to the European Commission and the European Parliament and asking for NGOs interested in signing it to do so by January 13, and the other stating that activists in 20 cities have already announced organizing events on February 6 meant to celebrate 1883 years since the earliest known reference to Rosia Montana and asking for anyone else who’s interested in adding their city to the list to make their intention known.
The title pretty much tells you what you need to know about this post and I also seem to have gotten back to not feeling like writing anything in my blog, most probably due to the fact that this temporary lack of significant new developments as far as the protests are concerned means I no longer need to at the moment, so this will be short. Thankfully, switching the focus away from here once again seems to have allowed me to do slightly more for my story over the past week or so, which was definitely needed, so at the moment I’ll call it a very good thing.
About the first part of the title, I have to say that, after some time spent rather casually poking around either the first Might and Magic or King of Dragon Pass, the former largely out of curiosity, to see how open world RPGs looked and played in 1987, and the latter mainly to make sure it actually works, I somehow managed to get over my reluctance to attack one of my two allies in the campaign scenario I was stuck at and therefore got back to playing Age of Wonders II: The Wizard’s Throne. Of course, I’d have certainly preferred not to have to do that, but since they were at war with each other and there’s no diplomacy option to ask AI-controlled wizards to make peace with each other, the only way to win was to wipe out one of them, so the allied victory condition will apply once only me and the other one will be left. Since then, I finished one more scenario and got past the difficult early stage of yet another, but now I haven’t touched it again since Tuesday, so let’s see how that’ll go.
As for the second part, it obviously means that I went to watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Seeing as I wanted to avoid crowds and also have a chance to leave after it’s over and go elsewhere as well before it gets dark, I went yesterday from 1:10 PM, but it seems that I avoided crowds rather too much, because all of 11 people were in the theater and the employees seemed rather bothered by needing to work for so few, seeing as we’re talking about the IMAX from here and it can seat about 400 people.
Next week, I guess I should go looking for a pair of pants once again, and maybe a better winter jacket and some warmer socks and slippers, seeing as those I have now have been in poor shape for quite some time. Not that I haven’t been looking for pants during the past several “discount seasons” as well, but I want a pair that’s just about exactly like these ones I have, and cheap as well, which doesn’t seem to be available anymore, at least not in any place I know of where you don’t have to directly deal with people to try and buy one.
With most shops starting to make significant discounts already, I checked out a few places yesterday as well, since they were on the way, but still no luck and I fear more and more that I’ll need to give in and get something else… In which case I’m inclined to give up on the cheap ones and look for something that will be something of an investment, which is already the plan for the jacket as well, but then I’ll be too afraid to make such a choice, considering the cost if I’ll later realize I didn’t make the best one, so it’s rather likely that I’ll just waste a day or two and then see about sewing a couple more holes in what I have.
At this time, I still don’t know whether anything notable may be planned for tomorrow as far as the protest movement is concerned and I rather doubt I’ll even try to attend if I will see a trustworthy call for an action with some potential relevance from now on, unless of course a significant event that will require such an immediate reaction will take place between now and then. As such, I probably could have waited until tomorrow to write this, since it’s merely for the sake of having a second post this week anyway, but I’d rather not start the year that way, so here it is now.
Last time, I was saying there were games I wanted to play and mobyranks I wanted to submit, so I wanted to make use of that shred of enthusiasm before it’ll run out. Unfortunately, it seems to have done so almost immediately, seeing as I can’t say I played much of anything over these past few days and I definitely haven’t made any more submissions on MobyGames since the start of the year, with the exception of one mobyrank which I resubmitted after being yet again rejected by the asshole. In fact, this continued battle with that guy is the very reason why I even said over there that I don’t know whether I still care to submit any anymore, but everyone else is still approving them as they are and, now that the site has been restored to its former self, stopping because of him when I’m not particularly busy with something else doesn’t sit right with me. At the same time, not stopping will very quickly lead to me resorting to the same, shall we say, acts of civil disobedience that led to me being banned for a month last year, so the result may be the same either way.
That said, I should probably try to play games more instead of going through reviews for so many I’ll never have any interest in only to submit them there. But, of course, there’s that constant problem of wanting to get everything just right when I do play and giving up because I either can’t quite manage it or I’m too afraid to even continue trying once it becomes difficult to plan every outcome in detail and be fairly certain of success precisely according to my definition of it, not to mention that there are also times when it simply becomes too difficult to advance further and I simply move away because “real life” is difficult enough and games should be an excellent form of escapism, not another source of hardship. This is why I only managed to finish a single, old game last year, after remembering playing the first part around the time it was released and deciding on the spur of the moment to grab the whole thing and go through it from start to end, assuming it’ll still work, which it did.
Unfortunately, the above doesn’t mean that I took that time to add more to my story either, though I do seem to be starting to at least somewhat recover from the exhaustion caused by taking part in protests for so long, so over the past few days I actually managed to write somewhat more each night and, believe it or not, even start working that major event into the chapter. That happened suddenly and started with a paragraph written from the point of view of a completely exhausted character while I was also struggling to keep my eyes open, so it’s probably rather confusing and shows I wasn’t thinking straight, but at the same time not having the mental stamina to analyze what I was writing meant I wasn’t rejecting every shred of an idea that happened to cross my mind.
That’s one way to go about it, I guess. I obviously can’t do things right, and at the same time if I’m not in a dreadful state I can’t tolerate doing things wrong, but if I try to do something when I’m unable to analyze the outcome, I may actually get something done. Granted, when I’m in such a state it’s particularly difficult to channel that tiny shred of energy I have left towards being in any way productive, and if I do so there’s little chance of much, if any, quality in the outcome, but as long as it’s not something that’ll affect others as well, it does at least count as doing something… And maybe there will come a day when I’ll be able to fix it.
This should be a relatively short post, seeing as not many things happened here during this period. Also, since I didn’t attend any of the events that did take place, it will lack details. In some cases, I could find no real reports of what actually happened, leading me to assume that very few people tried to attend a particular scheduled event and they probably decided against actually doing anything as a result, while in other cases the few reports I did find weren’t exactly descriptive. Whether that was due to the fact that there wasn’t much to describe or merely because many of those who generally tend to post good reports were away, I don’t exactly know, but all I can do is post what I could learn.
The first listed event called people to gather in front of the Bucharest Courthouse at 8:30 AM on December 24, in support of Ion Ioan, who still had legal troubles after his attempt to set himself on fire on December 15. While a few known activists mentioned the event, I have only seen one short message about it after it should have taken place, so all I know is that the Court’s ruling was favorable, rejecting the appeal against the initial rejection of the preventive arrest warrant issued on his name and restoring his freedom of movement, which had been curtailed as part of the previous ruling.
As for December 25, I was saying in the previous protest report that I did expect further attempts to sing creative new versions of carols to politicians and, while a few known activists were at Pungesti, offering Christmas presents to the local children, a few others asked protesters to do precisely that, the most notable event listing the Prime Minister’s home address and calling people to gather there for this purpose. Home addresses were probably far from the best idea at a time when most would be away, however, and I haven’t seen any reports about any of these actions actually succeeding.
As of December 26, the few activists who had been asking people to show solidarity with Sandu, who’s the man who’s on a hunger strike in front of the Bucharest National Theater, protesting against the abuses taking place at Pungesti, attempted to get somewhat more organized, so an event was created and people were asked to work out a schedule so at least one person will be with him at all times, especially at night, those who wanted to go being warned that they should be ready to react immediately if he is threatened or seems to require medical attention. While he was obviously also growing increasingly weaker due to the lack of food, this call mainly came because the small group of people who only protest against the President and support the current ruling coalition were becoming increasingly aggressive every evening, covering him in their signs and telling him to go away while the gendarmes refused to do anything to help. In addition, some of those “protesters” were also obviously drunk and therefore potentially even more dangerous, while at the same time suspicious individuals were noticed in the area at night, causing him to no longer feel safe while attempting to sleep without anyone keeping watch.
Based on the reports I read, the tensions peaked on December 28, so a call was made and a few more people arrived to help keep the others in check. In addition, a message posted that same day asked lawyers and legal experts to come up with a model that may be used to file charges against the authorities for refusing to even meet with the people who are on hunger strike, be it in Bucharest, in Pungesti or anywhere else, seeing as the reason why these people have resorted to such an extreme protest is that they are denied the rights guaranteed by our Constitution and by various international treaties that Romania signed.
December 29 started with a particularly decentralized protest that, while not directly endorsed by this movement and in fact clearly opposed by a fair number of religious protesters, was promoted by some known activists, the event itself being created by the Romanian Secular-Humanist Association as both something of a celebration marking 150 years since Alexandru Ioan Cuza secularized monastic estates and a reaction to the fact that, during the month of December, the Government granted the Romanian Orthodox Church 30 million RON (about $9.2 million or €6.7 million at today’s exchange rate), as well as a hotel complex and 2.3 hectares of land. What people were asked to do was simple: Make a sign with a message supporting the separation of Church and State and take a picture of themselves holding it in front of a State institution, though other suggestions were to place it in a visible spot on their car if they plan to drive that day or simply display it on the door of the building they live in. I noticed that a fair number chose to take pictures of themselves holding the signs in front of churches or cathedrals, however.
But to return to the events that actually were part of this movement, I have to say that Saturday’s tensions probably persuaded more to attend the “tea party” scheduled for Sunday evening. Since the call simply asked people to gather in front of the Theater from 5 PM to “have a tea with Sandu”, and especially considering the fact that the other group was certain to be there as well and most tend to want nothing to do with them and simply stay away from the area when they show up, I didn’t expect more than 30 or so to attend, but there seem to have been at least twice as many, and possibly even more than that. Thankfully, this meant that the other group realized they were vastly outnumbered and won’t be able to intimidate anyone that evening, so they didn’t cause any more trouble. The tensions reappeared the next day, however, when only a few people gathered once again around Sandu.
While many known activists and regular protesters spent New Year’s in Rosia Montana and some others simply took a break to spend some more time with their family, yet others called people to gather in front of the Theater once again by midnight on December 31, to enter the new year together and alongside Sandu, the event having the end time listed as 2 AM and messages being posted to warn everyone against doing anything that may exhaust him even more, one guy who insisted on bringing firecrackers being repeatedly told to set them off somewhere else and come back after doing so if he absolutely must use them that night. According to what pictures and reports I saw, about 100 people, possibly slightly more, answered that call and once again there were no incidents.
