Cav's Place

This will be a quick one, but I just want to point out that the GOG.com Winter Sale has started today, Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics also being offered for free for anyone who grabs them during these first 48 hours of the sale, the games needing to soon be removed from the catalog due to issues with the rights holder. This caught me by surprise since, even though a teaser was released yesterday, I was expecting another regular weekend sale first, with the Winter Sale only starting next week, most probably Tuesday, so I didn’t yet get a Paysafecard PIN and am therefore relieved that nothing I particularly want is among today’s special deals.
Yes, what I said above means that, as of last week, they finally added a payment option for those who either need or simply prefer to use cash, as well as for those who don’t want to give personal financial information away. According to the comments, those who actually tried to use this option faced some problems over the first few days, but I haven’t seen any more complaints lately, so let’s hope the issues have been sorted out by now and I’ll actually be able to finally make an actual purchase from there, after probably some three and a half years of nagging them about adding more options.

Another recent announcement was that they now offer a 30-day money back guarantee, so anyone who purchases a game from GOG.com and finds that it doesn’t properly work on their system despite the fact that it meets the requirements specified on the game’s page has 30 days to ask for a full refund if a solution isn’t already listed or quickly found by their support people. In addition, anyone who somehow purchases a game by accident or simply changes their mind about it and therefore doesn’t actually download the installer has 14 days to ask for a full refund as well. This is an unusual policy for electronic sales, and it’s also something that may quite easily be abused, especially considering the lack of DRM, but this only makes it one more reason to praise and support them in every way possible.

To quickly get back to the sale itself, it seems like it may require a few explanations, so I’ll say that, as I understand it right now, on top of the regular discounts for nearly all games, each day will feature a recommended bundle deal, a “community deal”, which includes a number of games that may be purchased at a greater than normal discount even individually but oddly enough is named as such even though it seems that the other deal is the one the community gets to vote on, and three secret deals, users being able to choose between a classic game, a new game and a random game to receive a greater discount for. To make it clear, each user is only able to select one of the three secret deal options per day, will only see which game is revealed after doing so and not everyone who made the same choice will benefit from the same offer.

Later correction: No, the “community deal” is actually the one the community gets to vote on, but the games available in it don’t have to be available with the same discount even separately, seeing as both today’s deal and the options for tomorrow are bundles.

Even later correction: The “community deal” seems to clearly be a bundle, the first day being the only exception, while the games in the “recommended deal” are available separately for the same discount as well.

This will be a short post, because I just want to say that Tuesday I went to actually contest the fine. Good thing dad came with me, since we couldn’t figure out where to go and he had to ask people several times, which I definitely wouldn’t have done, but signs did exist, even if not where we expected them, so I guess I’d have eventually figured it out on my own as well. Would have probably attracted even more unwanted attention from security by wandering around, but I had a small problem regarding that either way, being completely surprised by needing to go through a metal detector at the entrance, having my keys catch in the belt when I simply threw them on it and then realizing I had forgotten all the used batteries in my pocket, so the guard ended up quite wide-eyed by the time I finished taking them, as well as a pen and a mint, out after he told me to empty that pocket, waving me through without even checking again.
Either way, once that was done and we found the room where I was supposed to go, it went well enough, the person there seeming rather relieved to have to deal with someone who had everything ready and wasn’t talking, since the woman who was there before me kept complaining even as he started going through my papers and then even came back a moment later to show him something else. The odd part was that he handed me back one set of copies of the notification and the envelope and asked for the originals, which he filed away, which seemed to even confuse the lawyers somewhat when I sent an e-mail after I got back asking why was I told to go there with two sets of copies when I needed the originals as well, and I also saw a picture made by another protester who framed his notification after filing the papers to contest it, so he obviously got to keep the original, but at least now there’s no risk of me losing those and then needing them again later…

Otherwise, I’m certainly pushing well past any limits I have and don’t know whether I can keep doing this for much longer. When I rushed out for Monday’s protest I was shaking all over, but it seemed that being so scared made me act as if I wasn’t, since I even ended up approaching one of the Gendarmerie’s negotiators to ask some things, which would normally be completely out of the question. But I’m completely drained and exhausted, and not necessarily physically, and when you also consider the problems the movement has and the clear messages sent by certain known activists to those who don’t do what they deem to be enough, or don’t act as they think everyone should…
I sure wish I could simply get back to what I was doing before September 1, without checking several sources for news or calls for action several times per day and definitely without going out and being among people so often. In fact, if I wouldn’t have to go out now, it’d be difficult to even get myself to poke my nose out once per week, as I’ve been doing since the first part of 2007, and I’d definitely be extremely careful not to end up in a situation where I may need to interact with another person, but shit keeps happening and I have to somehow keep doing what little I can for these causes until either we win or I break down completely and there’s nothing left.

A major negative development was the fact that a new environmental permit for the Certej cyanide mining project was granted on Tuesday, while on the same day the Ministry of Environment withdrew its legal challenge against the one granted last year. However, despite the significant on-line backlash, I’m not aware of anything happening in the street directly because of it, most protest-related events that took place before Sunday in Bucharest being part of the Rosia Montana 360 exhibit, which closed Saturday evening with a discussion about the “Adopt a House” program, some known activists intending to also hold something of a strategy meeting on that occasion as well. Before that, specifically Wednesday evening, a debate about the reasons why Rosia Montana should become an UNESCO World Heritage Site also took place in the same location.
Still, the week’s most notable event as far as the protest movement is concerned, at least before Sunday, probably took place Thursday evening, when a viewing of Vlad’s “Ich Bin Dubist (Memories from the Van)” film took place in a club called B52. This was originally supposed to happen Wednesday evening, inside the Department of Sociology and Social Work of the University of Bucharest, but after Vlad was notified that, due to suspicions that the film contains “political propaganda”, the viewing will be “delayed” until the Ethics Board will reach a decision, he searched for a place free of censorship and was quickly approached by this club, where some 60 people eventually gathered despite the fact that the announcement was only made Thursday morning and only by a few activists on their personal pages.
The film is a documentary about the problems the activsts had with the gendarmes during last year’s protests, focusing on the moments when they were illegally grabbed and thrown into vans to be taken to police precincts to be identified even though they were showing their identity cards to the gendarmes, and of course also on those when they managed to avoid such an outcome. The viewing was followed by a discussion with the four “dubists” present that evening, which of course largely resulted in everyone else listening to Alex’s long speeches, but since it was already past 10 PM when the film ended and the talks could begin, people started leaving at that point.

Fourteenth Sunday: December 1 is Romania’s National Day and for the past few years small numbers of “Save Rosia Montana” activists have been showing up during the day’s events in Alba Iulia, Bucharest and Cluj, the “united we save Rosia Montana” slogan actually first appearing on December 1, 2011, in Alba Iulia. As such, though the “official” page of the “United We Save” movement only listed a gathering at the fountain from 5 PM and a charity concert in a club called Control from 9 PM, some known activists asked people to gather at Aviatorilor metro station from 10 AM, enter the crowd forming around Arcul de Triumf before 11 PM, when the formal ceremony preceding the military parade was set to start, stage a protest there and later, starting around 2 PM, take advantage of the open doors’ day to protest at the Government and Parliament as well. In addition, those same activists also mentioned that this is merely one plan and all protesters are encouraged to think for themselves and do whatever else they believe will help the cause, without necessarily making their intentions public or asking anyone else.
Since security at Arcul de Triumf was particularly tight and, obviously due to the fact that the posted protest plan involved the use of plastic bottles to make the “rhythm of the Square” heard during the festivities, the gendarmes searched everyone and made them drop all bottles, including unopened ones and even the baby bottles those who had come with small children had brought with them, before entering the area, not much happened there, the weak chants being largely drowned out and the media even reporting that there seemed to be fewer boos aimed at politicians than in previous years. In addition, whatever that group that met there in the morning, which I heard numbered around 15, tried to do at the Government, around 2 PM, also seemed to receive very little attention, but that was probably in large part because the earlier “independent” actions worked out better, the three protesters who visited the Government building and even bumped into the Prime Minister in the morning, as well as the I believe 11 who went to the Parliament, later also passing by the Ministry of Environment, actually receiving a fair amount of media attention. In fact, the reporters spared those three from being carded and probably fined yet again, since the gendarmes intended to do so but turned around and walked away when cameras were set on them and reporters asked why are they doing it.
And this leads me to what happened at the fountain, where I arrived around 5:10 PM, expecting to have at least another hour to wait before anything will actually happen and being surprised to find Alex already in the middle of a speech that seemed to have started even before 5 PM, apparently with quite a tirade against the gendarmes. Unfortunately, while he made some good points as well, he was set on attacking pretty much everyone and I almost turned on my heels and left when he started saying that anyone who is afraid or who may be scared by the state’s tactics, as well as anyone who needs numbers, groups or leaders in order to act, must walk away and not come back, without speaking with or even looking at him again, because those who know fear or need others have no place among the protesters while, according to him, those who care about numbers are only there to socialize and bathe in the crowd anyway.
Well, excuse me while I piss on all of that! I’m not there because I’m not afraid, but despite the fact that I am and that I know I already pushed past my limits long ago by simply being out and among people for so long! And yes, that means I do need certain numbers and a certain structure in order to act, but that has absolutely nothing to do with bathing in the crowd or socializing, which I try to avoid anyway. But, you know, if he’s so set on only working with the few who are fearless and always willing to even stand alone and was mentioning what the Ukrainian protesters are doing, I’d be curious to see if he’ll even be able to occupy a public toilet for long like that, without any support from the rest!
Either way, I stayed on, glared at him, took a few more pictures and counted how many people were present several times, the numbers being very similar to those seen a week before, so probably still under 150 at the peak, no actual count confirming the impression that we were closer to 200 that I got at one point when I simply glanced over the crowd. I also listened to some discussions about what had happened earlier during the day and tried to also listen to what some other protesters, including some activists from Brasov, had to say after we moved closer to the street. Unfortunately, while they tended to start well enough, those speeches tended to quickly move to nationalism, wild conspiracy theories or, in one case, a prayer, so people were again scattering in small groups and probably about a quarter had already left by the time Alex made a second speech, after asking those who wanted to either block the street or start marching to calm down, since the gendarmes obviously weren’t going to allow it that day and we were far too few to force them. Eventually, after he repeated that crap about those who are afraid or need others, and after also saying that the fact that this “United We Save” group even exists was one of the biggest mistakes we made, which is another thing I vehemently disagree with, he invited people to the charity concert in Control and left around 7:15 PM, which basically marked the end of the “protest” at the fountain that evening.
Since I didn’t attend that concert and didn’t see any reports about it either, and since all I know about the day’s incidents is already posted above, I’ll move on straight to the conclusion now and say that we marked three months of protests with very poor organization and misdirected anger. Yes, I definitely appreciate what those few protesters did at the Government and Parliament and completely agree that we don’t need leaders to blindly follow, but we do need to get organized, we need groups, we need people with the required skills and experience, and we most definitely need everyone who supports the causes we fight for and is willing to do something, anything, to help. We also need a rational and focused speech, and we need to work together but keep different issues and approaches separate, precisely according to that model they were saying they wanted to follow a week before, so each person who supports multiple things will be able to do something for all of them, but those who have serious problems with certain issues or approaches will not be forced to constantly clash with those who strongly support them. This movement started shockingly well and still has a chance to become even better, but at the moment the most serious problems it faces are likely those unintentionally created from within, so we need to step back for a moment, think long and hard and make the right decisions about the future.

Nearly two years ago, I was wondering whether we’ll lose ski jumping to climate change, largely focusing on the lack of snow and the rain that sometimes started falling during the competition, but this year it’s obvious that I need to focus on an issue that I just mentioned in passing in that previous post, namely the wind and how the way the sport is changing is making it increasingly vulnerable to it. As our commentator put it, people like ski jumping when it actually involves skiers who are jumping, but the way this season started is unfortunately likely to give many the wrong impression and not only put future fans off but even drive away some existing ones as well.

The season’s first two weekends were supposed to include one men’s team event and three men’s individual events, a qualifying round obviously being associated with each individual event as well. However, what we actually got was a single complete individual event, yesterday in Kuusamo, though that was plagued by some wind problems as well and it featured a qualifying round that took place on the same day, since the wind had made jumps impossible the day before. Today’s competition, on the other hand, which was announced as having a single round from the beginning and followed a canceled qualifying round, was completely canceled after barely about a third of the jumpers had managed to jump by the time it was supposed to end according to a typical schedule and the wind was only getting worse.
Otherwise, there was also a complete qualifying round that took place on schedule in Klingenthal, with the wind only causing some delays towards the end, but both the team event and individual event that took place there over the next two days had to end after a single round, again due to the wind. Worse, the individual event was particularly plagued by the wind conditions, only starting after hours of delays, and after the trial round was canceled as well, and ending after the last two jumpers, who obviously were last year’s champion and runner-up, elected not to jump due to the dangerous conditions, and perhaps to some extent also in order not to force the organizers to cancel the competition when they had already gotten that far.

Under these circumstances, and considering the issues I mentioned in the other post as well and which were also already noticeable this season in Klingenthal, where the newly built snow storage facility had to be used to cover the landing area with a reasonable layer since otherwise there was no trace of snow nearby, somebody should seriously think about where this sport is heading. On top of the problems caused by climate change, there’s also the fact that larger hill sizes make jumpers more vulnerable to wind conditions, stricter equipment regulations likely make it more difficult for them to control the jumps, and choosing venues according to the rules used for particularly popular sports, namely according to the potential attendance and the organizers’ ability to build and maintain high-level facilities, instead of according to whether or not the local weather patterns are suitable for such a competition, greatly increases the risk of such problems being faced with increasing frequency.
I want to see longer jumps as much as any fan of the sport, and perhaps even more than some, and would obviously also like the venue to offer good conditions for the jumpers and the television crews, but if I have to choose between aiming for that and ending up with no competition at all, or with such troubled events that produce unfair results when they produce any at all, and competitions that will actually run more or less on schedule in areas that can only offer smaller hills and facilities that are somewhat behind the times, I’d definitely pick the latter and I highly doubt I’m the only one. I seriously think that some important decisions need to be made next year if this sport is to be sustainable, because at the moment I unfortunately have to say that, in its current form and under the current and predicted future circumstances, it no longer seems to be.

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.