Cav's Place

After the twelfth Sunday, it was largely understood that we were seeing the end of this stage of the movement that started on September 1 and largely consisted of street protests, marches, counting Sundays and following the developments related to the law it all started from. The turnout was becoming so low that marching on roads and occupying squares was starting to be entirely unfeasible, the gendarmes could easily increase the pressure on those who didn’t give up yet, the colder weather and approaching holidays made it rather obvious that things weren’t going to improve, and the law itself was rejected by both the Special Commission formed to supposedly investigate the matter and by the Senate. Granted, the actual decision belongs to the Chamber of Deputies, which is yet to vote, but it’s obvious that the law in question will be rejected, also because the governing coalition has been busy splitting it in little pieces and including them in the proposed changes to several other laws, so rejecting that specific one will make no difference.
That doesn’t mean that there were no more protests before this thirteenth Sunday, in fact I believe they were staged each day, but we’re talking about a protest organized by something called “The Campaign for Life in Romania” across the road from the Chamber of Deputies side of the Parliament building. This was announced during the previous Sunday’s speeches and even formally notified, so it was even approved as of Thursday, after the mandatory three days had passed, but it’s not part of this campaign even if regular protesters and even some known activists who are part of the “United We Save” movement are involved in it as well. We’re talking about a movement that lumps together too many things, ranging from entirely legitimate and serious concerns to wild conspiracy theories or even things that should definitely be supported and promoted instead of opposed, those who lead or strongly support it as a whole being generally seen as an embarrassment or even as lunatics by many of the protesters who aren’t part of that group, myself included, so I believe I already gave it too much attention by focusing this paragraph on it and will stop here.

That said, the week’s events that I know of and want to list one by one started Tuesday morning, when a regular protester went to the Senate entrance, carrying a banner but alone. Though he couldn’t have possibly been an “illegal gathering”, he had two teams of three gendarmes each ask for his identification and demand that he stop filming, then was roughed up by one of the gendarmes from the second group, who surprisingly let go of him after he shouted for help a few times. After that, he was taken away to a nearby precinct, apparently to be fined, on the way being asked how much we are being paid to protest, before eventually being brought back to where he had left his bicycle after saying he will not continue protesting that day.
Not counting the fact that, according to some reports, people who simply happened to be at the statues, without having anything to do with any protest, were being carded Wednesday evening, the week’s other events were of an entirely different nature. As such, the “Rosia Montana 360” exhibition opened Tuesday evening and it also featured a day dedicated to documentaries, which was Friday, and one dedicated to related movies, which was Saturday. Thursday evening saw something of a strategy meeting supposedly meant to help determine the direction the movement was to take after the end of this stage oddly scheduled at the same time as a debate on the matter of shale gas, while a videoconference titled “How Can Rosia Montana Change Romania?” and supposedly meant to mark the collaboration between Romanian and French activists also started only an hour and a half later. Last but not least, Saturday saw the launch of the book titled “The Rosia Montana Affair”, a second debate on the matter of shale gas, and another titled “What Civil Society?”.

Thirteenth Sunday: The original plan was to once again meet at the statues, again from 4 PM, but only to properly mark the end of this stage by going over what happened since the start of the campaign, an important element of the announcement being that the next stage is intended to follow the model of the Spanish Indignados, multiple separate groups being formed to tackle each of the various issues, the main one largely being left to centralize the actions and facilitate collaboration. This was only posted Saturday and those who didn’t feel like attending yet still wished to mark the day in some way were even provided with lists of documentaries to watch on-line, so attendance was expected to be particularly low even before people realized that a Christmas fair will take place at the statues and the area is therefore closed while preparations are taking place.
Under those circumstances, the meeting place was eventually changed back to the fountain, but that was done by simply editing the post and not many noticed the change, so a few who arrived more or less on time, whether they were aware of the change or not, ended up walking around the area, trying to see what the best place to gather was while also looking for anyone who seemed lost and needed help to find the others. In fact, a group was away for quite some time even after that first hour or so, briefly returning to the fountain at one point before leaving again and only coming back for good after more of the known activists had finally appeared and something finally had a chance to start. Something not related to that “Campaign for Life in Romania”, that is, since some particularly, shall we say, enthusiastic members of that group had been making speeches and giving interviews to one or two television crews for some time by then, much to the displeasure of many of the others, who didn’t want their presence to be seen as supporting what those people were saying.
It may be said that “our” event started around 6:15 PM, when Alex started speaking, but it may also be said that it ended soon after, since the other known activists didn’t exactly seem willing to get involved and therefore those who spoke after him once again focused on issues and had approaches that, at best, made the others turn away and ignore them, when they weren’t actually expressing their disagreement. As such, the group gathered around the speakers was shrinking visibly, though we all ended up back together for a short amount of time after the rain started falling more noticeably and we moved into the underground passage, around 7:20 PM.
Once there, there was an attempt to start something again, but the shred of enthusiasm which seemed to have been momentarily regained vanished quickly and, since the other known activists still seemed unwilling to get involved and Alex couldn’t say anything else when he meant to do so because those who were speaking before the rain made us move had started doing so again by the time he tried, it wasn’t long before many were once again walking away. Some of those simply put some distance between them and the speakers but stuck around a while longer to chat with friends or other known protesters, but otherwise people were slowly, and perhaps somewhat haltingly, going home, many even saying out loud that they didn’t want to be associated with what was being said.
As far as numbers go, I tried to actually count several times and the most I got to was around 120, so even if I might have missed a few, we were clearly below 150 at the peak. There were also very few signs or banners, none of them new except those brought by that other group, and no incidents unless you count this largely silent conflict between the protesters, some gendarmes even having friendly chats with some protesters for quite some time. As such, I had no reason to take more than a few pictures and I’m not sure how many others took any at all.
Overall, it may easily be said that it was a disappointing end of a stage, and we definitely need to do something about that other group, but that’s rather difficult when those who lead or fully support it also attended our events all this time and are obviously more determined than the few of us who didn’t completely give up by now, not to mention the fact that, as I said, they do tackle serious and important issues, even if they mix them with all sorts of other things and their approach is often simply an embarrassment. On the other hand, perhaps the disappointment is a sign that we judge ourselves somewhat too harshly. After all, we successfully made it this far, scored some small victories along the way, have reason to believe we’ll make it through the winter with at least some embers still glowing, and are starting to build the structure needed to move on to the next stage. If we want this movement to actually have any real beneficial effects, that’s what matters most.

The fine for taking part in the November 7 protest arrived on Tuesday, so you can say I’m quite officially a protester now. Of course, this means I’ll be contesting it, which anyone who knows anything about me should realize will be quite a problem every step of the way, but accepting it would imply accepting that what we were doing there was illegal, which it wasn’t. As such, after getting all the information and making sure I know what I need to know about the steps to take and the situations I may find myself in as a result of doing so, I’ll have things to do either at some point next week or at the start of the week after that, seeing as the 15-day deadline is obviously calculated from the moment I received the notification.

Still on the topic of protests, it does seem that something cracked in my chest last Sunday. It’s clearly not a matter of something actually being broken, but there may be a tiny crack somewhere, because I imagine six days should have been enough for the pain to go away otherwise! Granted, I just about couldn’t move in certain ways during the first couple of days, which is no longer the case now, but it definitely still hurts when I do move in those ways and, strangely enough, I now frequently feel some dull pain that seems to radiate over a somewhat larger area even when I don’t move, which wasn’t exactly the case before. Whether this is part of the healing process or a sign that something’s getting worse, I don’t know, but at the moment I’m just taking it as another part of the process of earning my stripes as a protester and trying to wait it out. If it’ll get noticeably worse or if I’ll get through this first part of the process of contesting that fine and it still won’t get better, I’ll see about doing something more about it then.

Otherwise, the writing in my story is truly going absolutely dreadfully. Quality is obviously a long lost cause, as I keep saying, but there’s no quantity lately either. I went from the regular target of at least 300 words per day to aiming for around 150 on average, so not even a minimum, but now I barely managed to somehow throw together a few lines that barely have 100 words put together over the last two days! And seeing as I can’t just look for some filler to add anymore, because I’m in the middle of one of the two key scenes that are the very reason this entire part exists, I have no idea what I’ll do next. My mind isn’t offering anything whatsoever, so I guess I’ll have to just somehow squeeze another sentence or two out today and tomorrow, just to be able to say I’m still adding something to it each day, and then probably simply sit down at the start of next week, before getting to work on the next post about the protests, and find a way to complete that scene in one sitting, or at least plan it all the way to the end in one sitting and actually write it the next day. How will I manage that, I have absolutely no clue.

Monday, the Special Commission formed to supposedly investigate the Rosia Montana matter was finally voting on its report, so a message posted around 12:45 PM asked people to once again gather across the road from the Chamber of Deputies entrance at 5:30 PM. The description mentioned a flash mob, people being given sheets of paper with the names of the Special Commission’s members and asked to line up along the park fence and hold them, therefore not hindering traffic in any way, yet the gendarmes refused to even allow that. As a result, the protesters moved across the road from the other entrance on that side of the Parliament building, where reports state that their numbers grew to around 40, but that wasn’t enough for the gendarmes either, so after further pointless negotiations they were carded and eventually decided to leave around 6:45 PM.

While no other street protests directly related to this movement took place in Bucharest before Sunday, a few other events were announced, starting with an exhibit titled “Visual Identities for Social Activism in Romania”, which opened Tuesday at 6 PM and closed Friday evening. Wednesday’s event, on the other hand, was the students’ march, some known activists and other protesters who regularly take part in this movement joining in order to show solidarity and the students, unlike the teachers or the medical workers, having no problems welcoming their support. Then not much else happened here over the next few days, since a number of known activists and other regular protesters had left or were leaving for Mosna, where they helped the locals finally win the battle against a company entering their fields, destroying their crops and terrorizing those who opposed its efforts to prospect for underground resources. A smaller number returned to Pungesti as well, yet at the same time a delegation from Pungesti arrived here on Friday, to file charges against their mayor and present evidence related to the way in which he obtained the land he later granted to Chevron. Finally, after most had returned, a charity concert was organized here Saturday, starting at 9 PM, reports stating that over 200 people attended and over 2200 RON were raised for the Save Rosia Montana campaign.

Twelfth Sunday, eleventh Sunday march: It was a weird evening, which once again started at 4 PM, when people were asked to gather at the statues. Same as a week before, no march was planned, but that’s where the similarities ended, because this time around no events or activities were specified in the event description or in any of the messages posted by the known activists. As a result, the few people who showed up on time had little to do except chat with each other and wonder what was going to happen, seeing as the only thing being set up was a “Rosia Montana touristic and cultural spot”, which eventually became the “Rosia Montana cultural spot” because the sign wasn’t big enough for all the words.
Eventually, after the known activists arrived as well and we could all see that the most notable item brought was a giant banner, it was clear that we were only looking at a simple, regular protest, which finally started around 5:45 PM. Unfortunately, not even that worked out too well, since some of the known activists obviously meant to focus mainly on speeches, which is usually a quick way to make most protesters lose patience and interest, and they made it even worse by allowing others to take the loudspeaker and say whatever was on their mind even when that involved mixing issues or even rambling about topics that any rational individual clearly saw were unrelated. As a result, at some point a few drummers sat on the oversized vents that are used as an improvised stage whenever something happens in that area and started drumming, the crowd, which I was estimating at around 350 at the time, quickly splitting in two, more and more turning their backs on the speakers as time went on. Since people also started leaving after that point, the evening seemed set to end extremely early and, quite frankly, be an embarrassment.
That all changed when, around 7:15 PM, Alex asked everyone to come in front of the “stage”, thanked the drummers, made a short speech and, after what seemed to be a brief whispered conversation with a couple of other known activists, announced that we were to march towards the Government building. Nobody expected that, both protesters and gendarmes were taken completely by surprise, but we immediately got moving, going through the Old Town when the line the gendarmes hastily formed prevented us from heading towards Victoriei Square. When the march started, I was estimating that at most 300 people were left, most mainstream media sources even saying 200, but our numbers increased along with our energy and I’ll say we were at least 500 by the time we made it out of the Old Town. More probably joined later as well, but I didn’t try to make other estimates after that point and I haven’t seen many protesters post theirs either, the only other numbers coming from a few mainstream media sources which generally limited themselves to saying “hundreds”, only one going as far as “at least 1000”.
However many we were, we then headed towards the Parliament building, strangely finding both the street and the building itself enveloped in darkness when we got there. The gendarmes also seemed to be getting quite annoyed and one of them actually shouted at me to get on the street and shoved me as I was calmly walking on the sidewalk, slightly ahead of the column, and searching for the new pair of batteries I had with me but didn’t initially want to use, thinking I’ll take fewer pictures than I eventually did. That was shortly before we were asked to clear the road, a line being formed to first stop us from continuing forward and then to attempt to surround us, which would have given us no way to do what we were being told to do unless we broke through or slipped past them. Thankfully, however, we managed to do just that and kept going on Unirii Boulevard.
Once on Unirii, things seemed peaceful once again and there were no further incidents until we reached Unirii Square, around 8:05 or 8:10 PM, and stopped. Some wanted to keep going, but others sat down, shouted at the rest to do the same and everyone gathered there. As a result, we were quickly surrounded by a large number of gendarmes and, though that was obviously impossible at that point unless we suddenly developed the ability to jump or fly over them, repeatedly told to clear the road, an official statement released Monday also saying that criminal charges will be filed against those found to have participated in willingly blocking the road. Personally, I found occupying that intersection quite pointless and therefore was one of the very few who stayed on a small piece of sidewalk that the gendarmes were allowing us on, between the two sides of the road, but it was clear that not all of us could fit there even if the rest would have wanted to and it was only at 8:25 PM that we were allowed anywhere else, though Claudiu and Alex had asked the other protesters to leave the road at least five minutes before and many were trying to do just that.
After that point, we seemed to be heading back towards University Square, the gendarmes rushing ahead and keeping the road blocked with their vans as a result, even though we were all on the sidewalk by then. However, it wasn’t long before we turned left and once again ended up in the Old Town, walking rather aimlessly for a while, even the known activists admitting they didn’t know where we were going until Alex stopped and asked people whether they wanted to get back to the statues or to once again try to head towards Victoriei, the latter option apparently being favored by the vast majority. Some of those who disagreed broke away at that point, some of them walking away and others heading towards University Square on their own. Reports state that some of those who reached the statues were carded as well, though they clearly weren’t breaking any law by being there.
Since we were once again walking on narrow streets that could be easily blocked by gendarmes and our numbers were dropping, time was against us and, after finding the most obvious routes already closed when we got there, a group of protesters stopped and tried to quickly come up with a plan to get us out of that situation. However, by then it was probably already too late for plans and, probably noticing that, a few others rushed past, shouting at the rest of us to run as well, in what was becoming a rather desperate attempt to beat the gendarmes to the next intersection. When that failed, while some wasted precious moments arguing or trying to break through, others rushed back and onto the next parallel street, the fastest managing to reach Elisabeta Boulevard and then cross it to reach Cismigiu Park before the gendarmes blocked that route as well. Strangely for me, since I round to the nearest five minutes, the time I wrote down for this was 8:53 PM.
That was basically the end of the evening, since the gendarmes formed another cordon behind the protesters who weren’t fast enough to make it through and held them there, between the two cordons, for around an hour, carding and fining about half of them for taking part in an unannounced protest before finally letting them all go after people from a television station whose reporters were also held and carded there started making calls. Those of us who weren’t trapped could do nothing but watch for a few minutes, until the appearance of another group of gendarmes made us first withdraw to the park entrance and eventually, ten minutes after crossing Elisabeta Boulevard, run away and scatter in different directions when yet another group advanced towards us and then gave chase.
As far as incidents go, on top of those described above, perhaps the most notable was when a line of gendarmes that otherwise tried to stop people from continuing on the street extended onto the sidewalk and a woman was shoved forcefully before they eventually stepped aside. At the time I was sure it was a man, but that picture makes it quite clear that she was the one who was pushed into me as I was also trying to keep going legally, on the sidewalk, making me hit my chest with the camera hard enough that it still hurts a fair amount when I move even now, four days later.
As a conclusion, I’ll say that such a sudden march was necessary to save the evening and perhaps, at that point, even the entire movement, but I’ll also agree with those who say that those who led the crowd eventually went too far and should have given up after Unirii Square. In fact, as I stated above, I didn’t even see a point in occupying that place and didn’t actually participate in doing so, but returning to University Square was likely an even worse idea at that point, so let’s say that blocking that intersection for those 15 minutes or so was intended to make a point while we still had a chance to do so, yet using narrow streets to try to push forward yet again towards a place that the gendarmes were obviously set on stopping us from reaching was quite clearly a bad idea when we were so few and the fact that nobody even had a clear and solid plan was even worse. Admittedly, I went with that group as well, but I did so partly out of curiosity, wanting to have the whole story at the end of the day, and partly because I was more afraid of dropping back and being left more or less alone in an area still packed with gendarmes than of what may be waiting ahead. In addition, I tried to stay on the sidewalk as much as possible, paid close attention, reacted quickly and ran as fast as I could whenever necessary. Many others, on the other hand, seemed quite oblivious to the fact that we were playing a dangerous game at that point and the result was what it was.

GOG.com‘s Fall Insomnia Sale, which started Wednesday, was quite clearly a marketing success, but it also generated a fair amount of frustration for plenty of people and I dare say that it also lasted too long, and that’s even without taking the fact that this third “round” is going slowly and may even continue for days into account. Something like this probably shouldn’t have lasted much more than 24 hours and, while the concept isn’t, in itself, wrong, in fact actually being quite interesting, many things could have been handled better, so I’ll now take the liberty of offering some suggestions.

1. This should be a given, but I guess it must be said that the site should be able to handle such a sale, without being overloaded or crashing.

2. Customers shouldn’t, under normal circumstances, risk losing an offer after managing to click the “buy now” button while any copies are shown as being left.
– An option should be offered for users to test for lag, so each will know whether or not they receive the “stock” updates with a delay that may affect their chances of making a purchase in time.
– The counter displaying how many copies are left should always update very quickly, more than once per second if possible, at least for the main title.
– After a user clicks the “buy now” button, their copy of the game should be reserved for 30 seconds, allowing them to enter the payment information. If the order isn’t completed during that time, the copy should be made available once again, the user being notified of this fact if they still have the checkout page open.
– To avoid abuse, on top of only allowing each user to reserve a copy once, a script should probably make a reserved copy available again if the user doesn’t click to select a payment option or, if using the default one, doesn’t start typing the required information within five seconds of the moment when that portion of the page successfully loaded. And, of course, the way to handle free games during such sales should be changed, but the suggestions for that are below.
– A game should remain listed until orders for all available copies are successfully sent, in case any reserved copies will end up being made available once again, at least in the final “round”. If deemed necessary, in other “rounds” it may be possible to remove a title as soon as all copies are at least reserved, as long as any that won’t actually be purchased will be added to the amount made available during the following “round”.

3. While limited quantities of popular titles should continue to show up separately and at different times, offering people multiple chances to grab one before the offer expires, titles that sell slowly shouldn’t be allowed to hold up the sale.
– A 30-minute timer, visible at least for the final minute, should be implemented, the game in question being replaced with the next if there are copies of it left in the current “round” when the timer reaches zero. Some users suggested limiting this to around 15 minutes, so this may still be too much for some, but I’ll go with it for now.
– At most, that fixed timer may be replaced with a one-minute “stall timer” if only a few copies, definitely no more than ten, are left when the 30 minutes are up, the title not being replaced as long as no more than one minute passes without any copy being sold. This timer will reset to one minute as soon as a copy is sold and should obviously always be visible while active.
– When a game is replaced, it shouldn’t stop being on offer, but instead it should be moved to another category and displayed under the new main title on sale. These moved titles could simply be listed under an “also currently on sale” header, the title, sale price, full price, discount and number of copies left being displayed in plain text, the font size being relatively small and the “buy now” button following each list item also matching that size.
– Games that, based on the rate at which copies sold in the previous “round(s)”, are estimated to require over one hour to sell the number available in the next should perhaps be displayed as stated above directly, without showing up as the main title again. These titles should show up under “also currently on sale” either as soon as a new “round” starts or, if too many are identified, gradually, a certain number showing up immediately and the rest waiting to take their place as those first ones sell out.
– When no new titles are left to display in one “round”, those with only a few copies left to sell may make a second appearance as main titles, being moved back out of the other category one by one. Those that have more than a few copies left, however, should simply have the number allocated for the next “round” added and remain under the “also currently on sale” header. This obviously can’t be the case in the last “round”, so at the very end of the sale these remaining titles may be featured once again, one by one, until all copies run out.

4. If free games will continue being offered during such sales, a fairer system that’ll also allow users to decide whether they’re even interested in the game in question in the first place should be implemented, since currently the only way to have the slightest chance is to click the button the instant a new title is displayed.
– Free games should show up for at least ten seconds, giving users time to actually read the title and decide whether they want to try winning a copy or not. Users who already own the game in question should not be able to enter.
– A draw, made almost immediately, should decide which ones, out of all the users who clicked the button during that time, will receive the free copies.

5. There should be an official list of the games on sale instead of making people rely on external sources.
– If the games will show up more than once and the idea is to keep people glued to the screen, this list may be updated throughout the first “round”, games being added to it as soon as they first appear. In this case, the list may show the order in which the games appeared, it may be sorted alphabetically or, better yet, it may allow users to choose between the two sorting options.
– As the titles appear again, their color should change, so people will know which ones are left in the current “round”.
– If free games will continue to be offered, those that have already been free should probably be marked as such in the list.

November 4: The week started with what seemed to be a largely failed event, people being encouraged to take part in a blood drive and, as a recommendation, donate the food coupons received to those who are on the front lines of these battles, such as the villagers from Pungesti. However, the information provided directed people to a place where only students could donate, since that was the day’s special event, even though a general blood drive took place those days as well. The explanation given was that the place where anyone can donate doesn’t have the capacity to handle such campaigns and no available mobile team could be found for us to organize our own, so the decision was made to join the one the students had already announced in some sort of organized manner while those who weren’t students were simply advised to go on their own and donate normally. Understandably, that led to confusion and, according to some reports, even to people being turned away for insisting to go in only as a group, but a report that seems somewhat more official says that, while only five people wearing Rosia Montana T-shirts showed up, more than 80 donated that day when normally the number doesn’t exceed 50 on the first day of such a campaign, so it probably at least encouraged more people to donate blood, if not necessarily in connection with this movement.

November 5: I’m not sure this deserves mentioning here, since we’re talking of the Million Mask March, those who try to keep this movement together weren’t exactly willing to associate themselves with something that can be taken as a celebration of a terrorist act and, based on the few reports I saw, there didn’t seem to be any direct connection visible in the street. Still, there were some requests to take part and it would appear that a few regular protesters were among the handful of people who did gather then, apparently in two different places since that apparently wasn’t clear either, so I’ll just put this here and then move on.

November 6: Maybe 40 people gathered in front of the Senate from 8:30 AM, to support an anti-fracking law that was being voted on that morning. It was clear that it’ll be rejected and it was, receiving only eight votes in favor, but the protest was largely symbolic and meant to show the members of the Parliament that we are watching. Of course, the gendarmes were watching as well and they behaved in the manner that is now once again becoming the rule when it comes to these small protests, carding those present and announcing them that they will probably receive fines for their action. In the end, before the protesters cleared away, a basket of apples was taken inside and left as a gift, along with a short letter to the senators. The apples had stickers on them saying: “Does not contain the over 500 cancer-causing and radioactive substances used in fracking… Yet.”

November 7: In response to some backroom arrangements that took place the night before and gave the Special Commission formed to supposedly investigate the Rosia Montana matter an excuse to delay completing the report for one more day and the final vote for Monday, a protest was announced across the road from the Chamber of Deputies entrance, starting at 6 PM. Shortly after that time, the gendarmes arrived and told us to leave, which led to us first walking back to the park entrance, then to some continuing to walk after most had returned to the gathering place, but eventually almost all of us gathered again in one place for a while, only some of the cyclists still riding around. Granted that we didn’t all stay there that long, some of us also crossing the road to stand on either side of the gate, but that was after the gendarmes had proceeded to card us, many, myself included, going through it twice, once on either side of the road.
We were likely just shy of 200 at the peak, but we didn’t block the road or the access to the Parliament building and in fact there was less actual protesting and far more debating, be it with individual gendarmes, with the guards at the gate or with a major who was at the scene. Admittedly, a few of the gendarmes were agreeing with us, encouraging us to keep going or even saying they’re doing what they can to change things as well, but many were acting like they were merely following orders, funnily enough some looking down and mumbling or even simply running away when a few activists started reading them the laws allowing us to be there. On the other hand, the major tried at some length to explain why they’re right and we’re wrong, telling us that, according to their interpretation, the law only allows an unannounced protest inside the Parliament building or in the area between the building and the wall that surrounds it, yet saying it’s not his duty to facilitate our access when we asked to be allowed inside in that case and the guards refused.
As people started to slowly leave after 8 PM, a gendarme apparently said that their intervention was justified by the “innumerable” people who called the emergency number to complain of us blocking the sidewalk, so a few known activists, followed by a few other protesters as well, called 112 as well to complain of the gendarmes, who had actually been the ones blocking access all along, the few pedestrians passing through the area being able to get around or through our group quite fine when they weren’t forming a line on either side. These calls more or less marked the end of the protest, since not many were left by the time they ended and eventually, at 8:35 PM, I left as well, though I spent a few more minutes listening to a few of those who had been in this situation plenty of times after other protests sharing some of their experiences about contesting fines to a small group that had gathered in front of the metro entrance.

November 9: I’m not aware of anything having taken place on Friday and, at the time, I wasn’t aware of anything being planned for Saturday either, but I found out later that some 20 people gathered from 3:30 PM in front of the Greek embassy, answering the call for international solidarity with Chalkidiki, where people are also fighting against a planned gold mine. Admittedly, after seeing that report I remembered that the event was mentioned around the start of the week, but since the movement’s “official” page and the few activists I follow didn’t post anything to remind people of it after that, it simply slipped my mind and I clearly wasn’t the only one in that situation. It must also be noted that a roughly equal number of gendarmes, including no less than three negotiators, surrounded the protesters, far more were waiting in and around a couple of vans parked nearby and, of course, those who went were once again carded and will probably be fined for their action.

Eleventh Sunday: You might have noticed that I didn’t write “march” anymore, and that’s because the plans for this eleventh Sunday didn’t include one. That’s not to say none of this movement’s regulars took part in any marches in Bucharest that day, but those who did were either monarchists who took part in the one in support of returning to monarchy that started at 2 PM or a few rather restless protesters who joined the group from Pungesti when they walked past us on their way to a television station, returning after the show some of them had been invited to was over.
The event description asked people to be at the statues at 4 PM, bring musical instruments, art supplies or anything else they believe will help them protest in a creative way and get ready for an evening of workshops, speeches, music, videos and other such activities. It also said that everyone should come early, and I heard of at least one person who took that literally and was already there at 3 PM, but when I also arrived, almost exactly at 4 PM, I barely found a handful of rather concerned people. A minor reason for that concern was the other scheduled event, a few protesters having announced that they’ll gather around the fountain from 5 PM and do something else, but the main one was a message Claudiu had apparently posted around 2:30 PM, stating that the legionnaires had an approved protest in that same place, also on the Rosia Montana matter, between 5 PM and 7 PM, which meant that they had the right to ask the gendarmes to clear us away. Perhaps worse, it also meant that we’ll have quite an image problem whether we’ll stay there or not, since their visible presence in the spot where everyone knew our event was going to take place will offer a perfect excuse for those who had been throwing shit at us all along to escalate their rhetoric even further.
Some time passed before some of the known activists finally arrived and talked to the Gendarmerie’s negotiators, who said they already discussed the matter with the legionnaires and it was agreed that we can all stay there. After that, a “wall” of bicycles was formed to separate the two sides and preparations for the evening’s events could finally start, the fact that we’ll end up being behind the handful of legionnaires, who’ll therefore be the first thing anyone will see from the street, being shrugged off as unfortunate but unavoidable. Other unfortunate facts were that we were already running very late and that, according to a very stressed Alina, some equipment had apparently vanished, but in the end everything was somehow sorted out and we had a banner workshop, an area with information and offers for those wishing to visit Rosia Montana, a small art exhibition, pictures from disasters caused by cyanide mining in the past, an area where information about fracking was shown, a children’s corner, at least two groups singing and playing instruments somewhere in the square, and an improvised stage for the speakers and singers, which included a screen for the various videos played over the course of the evening. A lawyer was also said to arrive around 7 PM to offer advice about dealing with gendarmes and with the fines we’ll start to receive, but unfortunately I haven’t heard anything else about this after that initial announcement, so at this point I’m assuming that it didn’t actually happen.
The events on the stage finally started at 6:45 PM, Marius Vintila being the evening’s host and first speaker. Since this post is largely aimed at people from abroad who may be interested in the details of these protests, I doubt it’ll make that much sense to list the other speakers and musicians or the videos that were shown, but I have to mention the moment when a speaker who I believe was Willy Schuster accused Claudiu and Alex of opposing associating the movement against fracking with the one for Rosia Montana, generating some shocked and in a few cases perhaps even somewhat angry reactions, the matter eventually being sorted out after Paul Iurea said at the end of his speech that it was a mere misunderstanding and called the three of them on stage to confirm this.
Some time before that unfortunate moment, around 7:20 PM, perhaps up to 100 people arrived from Pungesti and walked past us, marching towards Nasul TV on Victoriei Way. At that point, many thought we were starting a march after all and meant to join them, a few actually doing so despite the fact that Marius Vintila shouted that we’re not going anywhere that evening. I unfortunately didn’t mark the time when they returned and can’t see it mentioned in any of the news articles I could find, so I can only very roughly estimate that it was somewhere around 8:30 PM, but I can certainly tell you that they were very warmly welcomed and became the focus for a while, a few of them obviously also speaking.
Eventually, a 23-minute film about the protests that took place during this year’s FanFest was shown, and during it people started leaving, the evening clearly approaching the end when I even saw Marius Vintila say goodbye to some of the known activists. That left Vlad to set all the remaining videos aside for another time and make the closing speech, during which he invited a few others to say a few words as well, before calling an end to the day’s events at 9:50 PM, nearly everyone leaving within minutes. On top of a few stragglers like me, the exceptions were obviously the few who had to stay behind to gather the equipment and the percussion group, plus those from Pungesti, who gathered somewhere behind the improvised stage for some more chants, a couple of short speeches and a prayer before making their way at 10:10 PM to the bus that arrived to take them back.
As far as numbers go, I was in the crowd and therefore in a poor position to estimate, my camera seeing better than me when I raised it above my head for a few crowd shots, but at the time I was guessing between 1500 and 2000 at the peak and I heard others give similar numbers, both there and on-line, after it was all over. The mainstream media, on the other hand, seemed to agree that we were only 500, a single television station that I know of going as far as saying “nearly 1000”, and over the next few days I started seeing some protesters lower their estimates as well, though generally remaining at at least 1000. That said, it still seems to me that we were well over 1000, so I’ll simply point you to a panoramic image and one or two regular crowd shots taken by a good photographer, remind you that not everyone can be seen in them and let you decide for yourself.
You definitely have to appreciate the effort a small team of volunteers put into organizing this event and it’d have definitely been a nice change of pace if it’d have happened on any other day, but I must say I’m not in the least happy with the decision to schedule it on a Sunday and break the rhythm set by the previous ten, especially when the Special Commission was going to vote on its report the very next day. However, despite all that, and also despite the low turnout, it did turn out quite well in the end, there were absolutely no incidents that I know of and it might have even attracted a few more people to our cause, so I have to say that the misgivings bordering on anger that I had when I arrived there turned into neutral or even slightly positive feelings by the time it was all over. As such, I continue to have no real reason to distrust those who try to keep this movement together, which also implies that I have no significant concerns regarding any direction they may perhaps be trying to steer it into.