Cav's Place

One of the three options posted Tuesday evening was a march between University Square and Cotroceni (Presidential) Palace, and this was the one that was clearly leading Thursday evening, when the voting ended. This led to plenty of justified complaints, seeing as the President doesn’t exactly have anything to do with the current or even future developments when it comes to this project and the fact that we protested there during one of the previous Sundays should have been enough if it’s simply a matter of proving that we haven’t forgotten that he was a very strong and vocal supporter of this project and the company behind it while PDL was still in power and he was calling the shots, so going there again is, at best, a waste of time. As such, the number of regular protesters from here who decided to go to Brasov instead, to support those who had been having problems with the gendarmes there for the past few weeks, increased, and Alina was one of them, which meant that the action groups were more or less on hold and, as far as I’m aware, no fliers were printed and the march was only actively promoted on-line.

Tenth Sunday march: Though the listed event time seemed to keep changing for some reason, it was clarified in comments and, eventually, also in the description and cover image that the plan was to start gathering, once again at the statues, at 5 PM, a comment also mentioning that we should start marching at or after 6 PM. I can’t tell you how many were there at 5 PM, however, seeing as this time I only arrived around 5:30 PM myself, but at 6:20 PM, when we did start marching, apparently very suddenly and rather unexpectedly even for the known activists, I’ll say we were around 2000.
The fact that the march was announced as being short but ended up being particularly long and the route seemed made up as we went along meant that people dropped in and out and plenty of times the column stretched on more than it should have, the density being particularly low as many became unable or unwilling to maintain the otherwise good pace set by those at the front. As such, our numbers increased and decreased several times, it was next to impossible to determine when the peak was, and making accurate estimates at any one point was rather difficult as well. Still, nearly all protesters who dared to try that evening, myself included, said we were around 3000, while most mainstream media sources seemed to agree on around 2000, though a few limited themselves to “over 1000” and one even to a laughable 500. By Monday, I did see a few protesters adjust their numbers to 2500 or even 2000 as well, but most stood by their original estimate and, seeing as I had plenty of good opportunities to make mine as I was searching for good spots to take some more pictures from, I’m tempted to do so as well.
Back to the march itself, it should also be noted that the gendarmes returned to the tactics used two weeks before, reminding us that blocking a public road is punishable by fines and announcing that they won’t join us if we decide to march on the street. Those with cameras were there, plenty of them obviously still not wearing the blue vest they’re actually required to wear, as were the negotiators, the one who appears to be the leader apparently getting a message and saying he’ll need to talk to Vlad after a warning once again stating that what we’re doing is illegal was heard from a car belonging to the Gendarmerie that showed up behind the column as we started moving, but otherwise I didn’t see or hear anything unusual and the next time we bumped into gendarmes was when we reached Cotroceni Palace, around 7:10 PM. Admittedly, I somehow forgot to check the time then, but I know that by 7:20 PM we were already moving again and I believe we only spent around ten minutes there, some protesters even saying they thought it was only five, those who’re set on only protesting against the President only being granted a short amount of time to get it out of their system without wasting the day for the others who saw little real reason to be there at the time.
The next destination was the Regie Students’ Complex, once we arrived in the area the chants being aimed at getting the students living there to join us. Seeing as students clearly know what’s going on and those who give a damn don’t need us walking past their window and calling them to come out in order to do so, the whole thing seemed quite embarrassing to me, but others decided that we should also stop there for a while, and we did so shortly after 8 PM. Once again I have to admit I forgot to check the time when we stopped, but we probably spent around 15 minutes sitting there and were finally moving again by 8:20 PM, after Alex made a banner saying “indifference kills”, which was held near the head of the column as we briefly went through a part of the Complex itself. That led to some disagreements regarding the direction to take at one point and one person said he had eggs thrown at his feet from above, others confirming that they saw the broken eggs, but otherwise most students seemed content taking pictures and filming, some admittedly cheering and waving but likely not enough to make up for those who looked bored or even somewhat annoyed.
After returning to the road we had been on before entering the Complex, we started the long way back, with the next stated destination being Unirii Square. Gendarmes also showed up again shortly after that, telling us to stick to two lanes of the road but not trying to hold us back in any way. The chosen route also had us walk past the Parliament, but the only notable event that took place as we did so was that we moved aside to let an ambulance pass, seeing as otherwise we didn’t stop and merely passed by Constitution Square at 9:35 PM before finally reaching Unirii at 9:55 PM. Once there, some wanted to stop, others kept telling them to keep going or even simply continued walking, but the matter was settled after somebody walked into the crowd and lit some torches, which led to some plainclothes officers and, later, to uniformed police stepping in. As a result, after some rather tense moments, the rest of us left the mess behind and headed towards University Square.
For the first time, the march didn’t end with occupying a square, since the gendarmes were waiting for us in large numbers and had already blocked access towards the intersection, but our own numbers had already dropped well into the hundreds by then and therefore we might not have been enough to even try, plus that people were certainly quite tired after such a long march, so we simply turned first left, then right, and reached the statues at 10:15 PM while avoiding any confrontation. I later heard that some did walk away from the group and tried to take to the street, but they were left alone by the rest of us who wanted to end the evening peacefully and quickly gave up. The gendarmes continued to be wary for a while, however, and those who tried to leave quickly found the access to the underground passage blocked, but those of us who waited around a while longer, eventually took a couple more group pictures and started leaving after 10:40 PM, when the call was made to do so, found the way clear.
Returning to the Unirii Square incident, it must be noted that the guy with the torches and the girl that was with him were not protesters, all reports clearly stating that they came from the park when we were already in the Square. What is true is that plenty of protesters did take their side, the girl’s in particular, especially after uniformed police stepped in and I believe some pepper spray was used, but most of those hadn’t noticed what happened before and simply reacted to seeing people taken away. Admittedly, a few did continue to try to defend the girl even after the information spread, but most labeled them as agitators at that point and walked away, some less verifiable reports that I saw even mentioning that a brief conflict started between some protesters and another group that approached moments later, a group which the two possibly belonged to.
Overall, it was a rather exhausting evening, the numbers were lower than ever before, I personally don’t think we had any real reason to stop in either of the two places where we briefly did so and, whether staged specifically for this purpose or not, the Unirii Square incident completely managed not only to ensure that we didn’t occupy any square, but also to convince a fair number of those who had made it that far to scatter even before reaching the statues. However, it was another march, and a particularly long one at that, during which we proved that we are completely peaceful and can be trusted, not causing any sort of incidents while the gendarmes weren’t with us and, under the circumstances, having the wisdom to avoid any confrontation when they were. As such, it could have been better, but it could have also been far worse, and what matters most is that we once again proved that we’re not giving up. Despite everything, despite even our differences and disagreements, there are still a few thousand people in this city willing to unite for a cause, and that is this movement’s greatest success.

I should start by mentioning that, on top of what I see personally, I’m generally getting my information by following the movement’s “official” page and the posts of a small number of activists and independent journalists. However, a separate branch of this movement has been trying to gain some traction, others seem set on protesting or organizing events independently, with small groups or even on their own, and a message posted Sunday on the “official” page even encouraged this sort of “decentralization”. I’m not currently aware of any such attempts managing to gather more than a handful of people or getting much attention from anyone, but the point is that, even if that will change, I’m not trying to keep track of everything anyone may attempt and may well even ignore some of the things I may happen to hear of. Our slogan is “united we save” and, even if these actions will now apparently be, shall we say, sanctioned by the known activists, they clearly divide us.
And speaking of being divided, protests for the educational system were organized Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while a march for the medical system took place Saturday, but the union leaders asked the gendarmes to keep those known to be part of this movement away even though those who went did so merely in order to show solidarity with the protesters, without signs or banners about Rosia Montana, fracking or any other issues. In fact, while the most notable call to show solidarity with the teachers was made by someone who said we should perhaps join them Tuesday in front of the Government when he was given one of the better loudspeakers for a few minutes before the start of the ninth Sunday march, while the usual speakers were taking a break, joining Saturday’s march was the “alternative action” the action groups and “official” page promoted for this ninth week. However, as I said, it didn’t work out, the only ones managing to take part being those who weren’t recognized and simply slipped into the crowd without asking.

Returning to the beginning of the week, five activists responded Monday to the actions taken after the October 17 incident by buying a used rear window, writing “resignation!” on it and bringing it to the Ministry of Culture, along with a letter of resignation only requiring a signature and a copy of the report written by British experts regarding the value of Rosia Montana as a world heritage site, which the Minister of Culture said didn’t exist. They weren’t allowed inside, not even to simply leave the copy of the report, the security guards citing special protocols that were activated after the incident in question, but the event got some media attention and even most of the gendarmes who showed up seemed rather amused by the situation.
Yet an even more visible event took place Wednesday when, as a small number of protesters gathered at the fountain from 4 PM and, despite not actually protesting, remained there for a few hours, a flash mob commemorating the victims of the 1971 Certej dam failure was staged in front of the Ministry of Environment. In fact, a few activists lit the first candles there at exactly 4:55 AM and people were asked to bring flowers and light candles throughout the day, but the actual flash mob, when a red piece of fabric was pulled over the maybe 30 of us who got into or covered ourselves with plastic bags and then, after it was removed, lay motionless for three minutes, took place shortly after 5 PM, when some 60 or 70 people were present. Once that was done, “Certej 1971” was written with candles and many more were lit as well, to the point that it did seem rather wasteful to me. In the end, a significant part of those present, including the few activists who had arrived from Brasov, left together, probably both to have an action group meeting and to discuss the next course of action in Brasov, where the gendarmes had been using force for the past few weeks.

On a different note, but once again returning to the October 17 incident, five people, including Claudiu and Alex, were formally accused and called for questioning Thursday morning. According to what was posted, the subpoenas were received Tuesday, though the date on them was October 28, so Monday. In addition, since I’m at legal matters, Tuesday also saw the second hearing of a rather odd trial related to the new Certej mining project, the National Environmental Protection Agency suing the Timisoara Regional Environmental Protection Agency in order to request the cancellation of the permits issued by the latter.
Moving on to Thursday morning, about 60 of us, and a lot of reporters, gathered at 9 AM in front of the precinct where the hearings were to take place, eventually leaving at 11:30 AM, after both the hearings and the interviews were over. We were there to take a picture with a the “Association of Future Political Detainees” banner and, of course, to show our support. At the time, most of us didn’t know who the other three who were accused were, and I personally still don’t know who one of them is, so the support was initially meant for Claudiu and Alex and then, based on who they were and what those who had caught a glimpse of what happened could remember, we were to determine whether the others deserved it as well. After all, somebody broke that window and that person should be identified and punished accordingly, both because it’d be the right thing to do and because, once this will happen, the authorities will no longer have this excuse to throw bogus charges at the known activists or any other protesters they wish to intimidate.

I initially meant to include the tenth Sunday march in this post as well, but I clearly wasn’t going to do that today, so I’m posting it as it is and will then write a separate one about the march. Should also make reading these things somewhat more manageable; they’re probably confusing enough even without taking the length into account.

I should mention that I continued to see a small number of people apparently gathering around the fountain each evening when I checked the webcam overlooking the area, but no other banners or any other signs that they were actually protesting, plus that on some evenings they scattered particularly early as well. Seeing as, when I pointed out some mistakes made on one of the fliers that was printed, I was told I should come to the fountain and make those observations while these things are being discussed, before the materials appear on-line after it’s already too late to change anything, I can assume that these small gatherings largely act as some sort of informal action group meetings, whether those who show up actually are part of those groups or not. I may be wrong, of course, but that’s how it seems to me at the moment.
With the three options for the route of the ninth Sunday march being posted on Wednesday and the voting ending at 10 PM on Thursday, other actions included a silly and pointless one-minute strike on Wednesday, when people were asked to stop working and simply look at a certain page or one of the available mirrors at exactly 3 PM, two discussions on matters of patrimony on Thursday, and the action group meeting that took place on Friday, apparently from 5 PM. More visible was Friday’s “guerrilla action”, when campaign stickers stating that the product doesn’t contain cyanide yet were placed on products found in supermarkets, and two more actions meant to spread awareness on Saturday, one focused on the students living in the Tei Complex and the other on the pilgrims gathered at the Patriarchy. There are some conflicting reports about this last part, with Alina, who initiated and more or less leads these action groups, saying it turned out quite well but other reports stating that only six people actually tried to spread the fliers, gendarmes started filming them since they gathered and then asked them to leave, informing them that the Patriarchy disapproves of their action.
It was also announced on Wednesday that five NGOs, which were reduced to four after it was revealed that one of them isn’t formally registered at the present time, took Chevron, the Government and the National Agency for Mineral Resources to court in order to cancel the permits allowing the company to explore potential shale gas deposits in Barlad county and in three areas of Constanta county. Otherwise, with the “intimidation machine” being kicked into motion and people all over the country starting to receive fines for taking part in the protests, some of those who were present during the incident that took place a week before were called for questioning on Thursday, with “offender” having obviously been initially written on the subpoenas, before being erased and replaced with “witness”. Actually questioned as offenders were Claudiu and Alex, on Friday, though they were not formally accused at the time.

Ninth Sunday March: At 4 PM, when we were supposed to start gathering, a mere handful of people were at the statues, the meeting place having been changed so we’ll have more room and also in order to provide us with more opportunities to take to the street in case the gendarmes will try to stop us. As such, it took quite a while before people actually started protesting and some known activists made some speeches, and nobody was surprised when, at 5 PM, when the plan was to start marching, it was announced that we’ll wait a while longer, seeing as plenty of people were yet to arrive.
We were perhaps 2000, possibly somewhat more, when the call was made to get moving, but I didn’t check the time when it happened and in fact I’m not sure how relevant it’d have been to do so, seeing as the gendarmes did stop us from taking to the street at first. That led to some people using the underground passage to reach either the fountain or the Theater and others trying to break through the line directly before the rest of us used a narrow street to go around and finally make our way to those who had gotten ahead and were waiting for the numbers required to start marching on the road. The gendarmes did make several more attempts to get us back onto the sidewalk even after that point, but they didn’t seem quite so determined and it didn’t take long for the protesters to get past each line they were trying to form, not to mention that those of us willing and able to run a little could easily stay ahead, so they eventually gave up and waited for us at Victoriei Square, in front of the Government building, where we arrived at 6:35 PM.
According to the original plan, the march was supposed to end there, being followed by perhaps hours of protesting in that location, but at 7:20 PM a call was made to get moving again and people were quick to do so. Unsurprisingly, the gendarmes were once again not happy with the idea, but they were caught unprepared and plenty of us were already through before they managed to link arms and form a line in front of the rest. That prompted some of them to start running, obviously in an attempt to get ahead of us and form another line, we responded by sprinting ourselves in order to stay ahead of them and that was more or less the story at least until we reached Romana Square. Some of them and those of us who were ahead of the line were sprinting every so often, each side trying to stay ahead of the other, and the line occasionally tried to stop in order to hold back the thick of the protesters, at which point those of us who were ahead turned back to catch them between the two groups, allowing some of the rest to start making their way through and making the gendarmes need to start moving again if they didn’t want to simply end up behind the protesters. For obvious reasons, I focused on filming during that time, though I still took plenty of pictures as well over the course of the evening.
I believe our numbers peaked either as we left Victoriei Square or at some point during our march on Victoriei Way, possibly before reaching the crossroads with Elisabeta Boulevard, but it was hard to make an estimate at that point and I was definitely in no position to do so. Still, mainstream media sources almost unanimously stated that we were around 3000, only one going as high as 4000, and while 3000 seems somewhat too conservative, I believe this latter value to be quite fair, at least based on what I saw both before the mess started and after it more or less ended. Of course, there were some protesters who put forward numbers as high as 9000 that evening, but those were obviously too high.
Returning to the march, after Romana Square the gendarmes seemed to have something of a change of heart and largely left us alone, many of them regrouping to wait for us at University Square, where it was believed we were heading after some of the known activists were heard saying so as we left Victoriei Square. However, when we reached the crossroads with Elisabeta, the call was made to keep going straight ahead and people readily did so, especially since they could see what was waiting for anyone turning left. The fact that avoiding University Square had been the plan all along was perhaps as much of a surprise for many of the protesters as it was for the gendarmes, but the known activists couldn’t exactly make all of us aware of this and prevent the gendarmes from hearing of it at the same time, and I’m sure people understood that.
After that point, the obvious question was where were we really going, and what I could hear most frequently was the Parliament, so probably Constitution Square, but others apparently also meant to go to the Patriarchy, which would have clearly caused conflicts among the protesters, so we turned left when we should have turned right in order to get to either of those. Shortly after that, when most of us turned left a second time and headed for Unirii Square, others seemed determined to keep going straight ahead, I have no idea where to. Still, though some of those who had other routes in mind likely scattered before that point, perhaps some 2500 people reached and occupied Unirii Square at 8:25 PM, finding no gendarmes waiting for us.
For a while, we were expecting them to leave University Square, which at that point they were blocking for absolutely no reason, and surround us at Unirii, but they didn’t. That prompted some more hot-blooded protesters to try to persuade the others to get moving again and go to them instead, but we stayed where we were, clearing Unirii Square to go to University Square and create an incident obviously serving no purpose. Granted, seeing as people seemed quite tired and not particularly willing to actually protest anymore, staying at Unirii just to block the place wasn’t particularly useful either, so the numbers started to drop quickly and after a while a negotiator came alone, talked at some length with a few of us, eventually announced that only 350 were left and those who’ll insist on staying on the road will be identified and fined. That initially caused some to react with some hostility but, after briefly discussing the matter, the known activists decided it wasn’t worth it to create an incident when the evening had been ours once again and most had already left on their own, so the call to scatter was made at 9:30 PM and people quickly did so. I heard a few odd reports stating that some were still around until 10:30 PM or even 11 PM, but since I waited a few minutes before entering the metro station and therefore saw the area, including the sidewalk, clear almost completely, I find that strange.
Now, before I move on to the conclusion, I want to briefly return to the incidents that took place on Victoriei Way and mention that a woman fainted at some point and some protesters were hit by the gendarmes, a few showing bruises and one now using a crutch to walk. In addition, I saw some reports about a group of violent individuals joining the march and pushing the gendarmes. That may explain why the negotiators were justifying their colleagues’ behavior by saying that we had agitators among us and they needed to make sure they won’t be given a chance to cause some real damage, but it doesn’t explain why they didn’t extract those few and allow the rest of us to continue on our way, because the way they acted simply turned that entire part of the march, between Victoriei Square and Romana Square, into one continuous incident, angered even some protesters who’d have been far calmer otherwise and ensured that it actually took longer before the road was cleared.
Still, it could have been far worse, especially considering the way the politicians are changing their attitude after noticing that, though our numbers are unfortunately declining, we’re definitely not stopping and some of those who aren’t actually taking part in marches anymore at this point may simply wait for them to make another move and return if it’ll still be against what we’re asking. Sadly, it already is much worse in Brasov, where the gendarmes used force for the third Sunday in a row, heavy fines and minor injuries being spread liberally among protesters merely because they wanted to march on the road. For this reason, we must be more and more careful from now on, making sure we won’t provoke incidents ourselves and continue to avoid as many as we can, but obviously without allowing them to intimidate us into giving up. The movement is entering a new stage, one that requires us to have the wisdom to find the proper ways to respond to the changing situation and the determination to see those plans through to the end.

At the moment, I’m not entirely sure when I’ll even start writing the next protest update or what form it’ll take, since too much information is piling up, but I noticed yesterday that I’m missing some things and thought I might as well mention it here. Sure, it’d be a lot better if I’d simply ignore this and at least start that update instead, but that’s not happening.

What I mean to say is that, when I went through my jacket’s pockets before leaving yesterday, I came up with two used batteries less than I knew I had on me during the previous march, the obvious conclusion being that at some point I either tried to put them in my pocket and missed or they somehow simply fell out. Seeing as I only had a single, unpaired, new battery with me that evening, otherwise needing to make do with several nearly empty pairs, the camera having already turned off with most of them in it, I kept trying to find a way to squeeze a few more pictures out of each and therefore kept replacing them in a hurry, so this isn’t entirely surprising. What makes it somewhat more disappointing, however, is that at some point I heard something falling on the pavement and noticed a battery about a meter away from me when I looked, but I assumed it was someone else’s and didn’t bother checking.
Worse, early during yesterday’s march, after one of the sprints required to get and then stay in front of the line the gendarmes kept forming after we made it out of University Square, I suddenly realized that running like that meant I could quite easily lose what I had in my jacket’s pockets and, after moving them there in order to be able to get to them more easily, my phone and the new batteries were in one. Granted, the batteries were tied together and likely too heavy to simply jump out on their own, and either way I still felt their weight there, but as I quickly put my hand in to check for my phone I noticed that the pen and pencil I also had in one of the pockets were no longer there. Sure, those are a minor loss, seeing as there are piles of them around the house, but it meant I couldn’t write anything down on the way, needing to resort to simply saving the times at which a few things happened in my phone, without even taking the time to type what those numbers were referring to.

Though this is already longer than I meant it to be, I should also mention that I meant to drop off all those used batteries in the designated bin next to the entrance of the hypermarket I went to today, only to find that the bins for small electronic waste were no longer there. The giant green poster that was behind them is still asking people to drop electronic waste there, but unless they want us to drop everything on the floor, I do believe they forgot to bring some things back, perhaps after taking them away to be repaired or replaced, since I did notice last time that some were broken.

I had far more important things to write about 11 days ago and then last week I managed to put in two protest updates, but now I don’t seem to be getting myself to even start the next one, so it’ll have to include tomorrow’s march and be posted at some point next week, leaving me in need of a second post for this week. As such, I might as well mention getting older and marking another birthday spent wishing to wake up from the nightmare these past eight years have been while I’m at it.

Otherwise, my story’s obviously still going poorly, and lately I seem to be accepting that and not even struggling too much anymore. I’m still writing something each day, of course, but I usually spend at most one hour on it instead of around two, don’t particularly care about the number of words I manage to put in, rarely hitting the 300 that used to be the daily target, and largely stick to dialogues and the occasional look inside a character’s mind, which I’ve always found less difficult to write, largely ignoring the fact that this means the story’s moving forward awkwardly or not at all. Still, I am somehow edging ever closer to the end of this third part, though I still don’t know how to include one of the two scenes that are the very reason why it even exists, not to mention that I haven’t answered all the questions regarding the other either.

At least I’m playing something, still putting a fair amount of time into Age of Wonders II on days when I’m not protesting or writing about the protests. It’s going slowly, since that’s how I play, but I am at the water mastery phase of the campaign and wondering whether the fact that I haven’t won yet has to do with the fact that my two allies are at war with each other or it’s a bug. It sucks either way, since all of my enemies have been defeated and there’s no option to ask those two AI wizards to stop fighting and ally with each other, but if it’s not a bug I guess I have to either wait for one to defeat the other or declare war on one of them and do it myself. Not keen on either option…

I guess that’s about it for now, especially since I need to catch up on some sleep. Tomorrow I’ll be once again waking up in the morning to watch the race, but since it’ll start later than the previous ones I won’t get a chance to catch a nap after it’s over anymore, so I’ll be marching on perhaps five or so hours of sleep. Add the fact that I woke up early to watch the qualifying today as well, actually finding myself awake around 10 AM and unable to get back to sleep quickly enough for it to have any point, and it doesn’t exactly look good, so let’s see if I’ll manage to actually get a few hours now instead of simply tossing and turning.