TELEGRAMA - Weekly English Synthesis 2/April 25,1994
Dorotea Niculescu-Maier
Romania, Bucharest, P.O. Box 66-91
Phone (+) 6596310, Fax (+) 3129627
TELEGRAMA - Weekly News Synthesis
Number 2, April 25, 1994
Period covered: April 15 to 22, 1994 (Bulletins 28 to 33)
Next issue will be distributed Monday, May 2, 1994
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Section 1 - TOP NEWS - Contains the most important three news of the week
covered by the daily bulletin.
1. Tripartite meeting: Iliescu-Arafat-Peres in Bucharest
PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres
arrived in Bucharest to participate in the Conference of the Crans
Montana Forum and conducted bilateral peace negotiations Wednesday
night. Representatives of the two countries took part in the
inauguration of the Crans Montana Forum and participated in the luncheon
given by Romania's president, Mr. Ion Iliescu Thursday in honor of the
heads of delegations. The joint news conference held at the end of the
day by President Ion Iliescu, PLO leader Yassir Arafat and Israeli
foreign minister Shimon Peres, underscored the importance of the talks
conducted in Bucharest and the desire of the two parties to carry through
the negotiations. Both Yassir Arafat and Shimon Peres avoided direct
answers concerning the setting of a date for the signing of the agreement
stipulating the withdrawal of the Israeli troops from Gaza strip and
Jericho, as well as the sanctioning of tangible results. They indicated
their readiness to implement the general principles of the agreement
signed on 13 September in Washington. "Our government is decided to
conclude the negotiations", stated the Head of the Israeli diplomacy.
"President Arafat will be the first Palestinian leader to bring back hope
and peace for his people". In his turn PLO leader showed that the
negotiations would continue on Thursday evening, with President Ion
Iliescu's assistance, and voiced his hope that the results will soon be
evident. "We hope to reach joint conclusions and an agreement acceptable
to both parties", said the PLO leader.
2. Placido Domingo's Concert in Bucharest
Spanish tenor Placido Domingo sang in Bucharest before a house that
frantically applauded one of the greatest singers of all time. Arias from
La Tosca and Faust, La Traviata and Turandot were sung as well as
canzonetas and Spanish music. The finale of the third act of La Boheme
was included in the night's repertoire. Joining Domingo on the stage
were soprano Angela Burlacu-Gheorghiu as well as two singers of the
National Opera ensemble of Bucharest, soprano Iulia Isaev and baritone
Dorin Mara, accompanied by the National Radio Orchestra under the baton
of American conductor Eugen Kohn.
3. Financing policies for Romania
The IMF announced in Washington, D.C. that in the first half of May the
Board of Executive Directors will discuss the Memorandum of economic
policies of the Romanian government and the application for the
endorsement of the stand-by agreement. The IMF believes the monetary and
fiscal policies applied by the government and the National Bank, more
particularly the measures for the liberalization of the rate of exchange
of the national currency, are favorable to intensifying the process of
reform and the understandings agreed to by IMF negotiators. In Brussels,
the G-24 meeting confirmed the granting of assistance to even Romania's
balance of payments, allowing for the earmarking of resources worth $696
million in the first half of May 1994. The European Commission will
submit to the EU Council of Ministers the proposal to grant Romania a
community macro-financial assistance worth 125 million ECU. Apart from
this, a contribution to the setting up of this fund was announced by
Japan ($50 million) and the EFTA countries ($28 million).
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Section 2. - TITLES - Contains all the titles of the news distributed via
the Romanian daily issue
2.1. INTERNAL AFFAIRS
- The Senate refuses to dedicate a special session to Bessarabia (28)
- Demand of EC for Human Rights Convention validation (28)
- Opposition asks Prime Minister to resign (28)
- Protest of a national-wide trade union (29)
- Romanian Intelligence Service and Tourism budgets (29)
- Human Rights Convention - adopted by the Senate (30)
- Vote without Opposition on agriculture taxes (30)
- Classic weapons destroyed (30)
- Lack of trust in the Government (30)
- Recent corruption arrests, considered political measures (31)
- Members of PL'93 party, arrested and released by French police (31)
- New rules for Police methods (31)
- The Davos Forum, expected in Bucharest (33)
- New Budget, proposed by the Civic Alliance party (33)
2.2.. FOREIGN POLICY
- Process of accepting Romania in the European Union (31)
2.3. ECONOMY
- Bonds owners of Romanian Foreign Trade Bank may become shareholders(29)
- Research matters showing governmental disregard (29)
- Energy distribution interrupted for huge industry debtors (31)
- $220 Mil financing for Romania (31)
- Romania at the Hanover Fair (32)
- The value of Investors Certificates, expected to go up (32)
- $170 Mil IMF loan for Romania
- The new "Bucharest Bank" and its president, Dan Pascariu (33)
2.4. SOCIAL ISSUES
- Private funds for retirement (28)
- Romanian-American Foundation for Medical Aid (28)
- Inflation rate, to be influenced by wages increase (29)
- Demographic crisis (30)
- Complaints against pyramid scheme keep accumulating (31)
- Pain therapy, studied by doctors (32)
- Illegal transport of optical lens, stopped at the Yugoslav
border (32)
- Miners threaten with a "civilized protest" (32)
- 6 Lei/month (=0.00375 USD) - the lowest pension (33)
2.5. CULTURE
- Journalists' complaints addressed to Prime Minister (28)
- Romanian treasure returns safely from exhibition (28)
- Romanian film director Lucian Pintilie at Cannes Festival (29)
- Placido Domingo in Bucharest (29)
- New books (29)
- Current issues at the Writers Union (29)
- Journalists arrested and threatened with guns (30)
- National TV stations, under the control of the Parliament (31)
- Festival of European Theater Schools and Academies (31)
- "900 days of manipulation" - a book by the former National TV
CEO (31)
- Copy of "Prayer" sculpture of Constantin Brancusi - stolen and
recuperated (32)
- "Sveijk at the end of the world" - at the National Theater (32)
- Commission established for Colleges accreditation (32)
- Teachers will protest in front of the Parliament (33)
- Romanian actor Ion Lucian celebrates 70 (33)
- ECOPOP'94, Music festival (33)
2.6. SPORTS/TOURISM
- Samsung soccer Cup (28)
- Stefan Birtalan, new coach of the National handball team (29)
- Soccer team for match with Bolivia (30)
- Romania remained in Group C hockey (30)
- Romania at World Gymnastics Championship (32)
- Romanian feminine successes in fencing (32)
- Nadia Comaneci declares she will sponsor the Gymnastics team (33)
- "Romanian soccer team - dangerous" declares USA second coach (33)
2.7. USEFUL INFORMATION, LOGISTICS
- The Obor Market in Bucharest becomes fish market (28)
- 50% increase of the cost of the water (28)
- Passenger link between Turnu Magurele and Nicopole (30)
- Toxic garbage in village areas (30)
- Campaign for energy saving (31)
- Rain water regulations (31)
- Romanian Radio 24/24 wavelengths (32)
- New international link by bus, with Hungary (32)
- Taxes for trucks using Romanian highways (33)
- Ecological certificates for industrial activities (33)
- Thermal energy costs increase (33)
2.8. PERSONALITIES
- Personalities invited at the Crans Montana Forum (29)
- Entry visa for King Michael (29)
- Celebration of journalist Pamfil Seicaru (30)
- TV journalist Radu Cosarca accepts job at TELE7ABC (32)
2.9. CURIOSITIES
- 100 kg sturgeon caught in Danube (28)
- Romanian counterfeit currency printed in London (30)
- The ZOO-Park in Bucharest (31)
- A new pyramid scheme for companies?(33)
2.0. MISCELLANIES
- Helicopter crash in Brasov: seems the pilot was guilty (28)
- Romanian clandestine travelers found on American ship (29)
- Corruption in figures (29)
- Organized rubbery (30)
- Romanians stopped at Spanish border (31)
- Current issues ("The other side of events") (32)
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Section 3. - ARTICLES - Contains 1 to 3 weekly articles
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THE LESSON OF EUGEN IONESCU
Article by Octavian Paler, published in Romania Libera newspaper
I am afraid that Eugen Ionescu's glory and work may leave his
lesson in the shadows. In celebrating his memory, we can easily forget
this. Something in me snapped when a Agence France Presse correspondent
called me to announced Eugen Ionescu passing. For about a minute, I was
speechless, maybe because I considered Eugen Ionescu a genial writer.
Maybe because I loved him. Maybe because my memory was suddenly filled
with the hours spent in his presence at his Montparnasse apartment. I
understood that I will never enjoy similar times again. Maybe because
Eugen Ionescu, one of the few great spirits who never succumbed to the
ideologies that hurt this century, disappeared. All kinds of rhinoceros,
from the right and the left, had in Eugen Ionescu a pitiless, constant,
enemy. He was against fascism when it was not easy to be against fascism.
He was against communism when flirting with leftist ideas was fashionable
among French intellectuals. He was against goulags when Sartre and
others, arranging their armchairs toward the currents of the history,
avoided the unveiling of the horrors happening behind the Iron Curtain.
He took from the human being its class "immunity" and its race
"immunity," to speak about what is deep in the human being. In a way,
the lesson of Eugen Ionescu is different from Goethe's lesson, who
remained in a state of serenity during the tumult of the Napoleonic Wars,
and that of Andre Malraux, the one who could not conceive his destiny
without action. Eugen Ionescu was not an Olympian, detached from
history, even if there were moments when he dreamed of walking beyond
history. While haunted by uncertainties, he considered the only complete
answer to be the non-answer. He disregarded the "tricky people" that are
navigating within the strongest current but which, in fact, "do not
exist" because they only identify with the direction of the wind. And
without giving up the wish to arrive beyond history, he did not hesitate
to stand up against all the horrors of history.
I recall the nights when I was listening to him, sometimes on "Radio Free
Europe." Eugen Ionescu's solidarity gave me courage more than once. He
was living in Paris, he was a member of the French Academy, he was in
full glory, he could afford, as others did, to ignore what was happening
with us, but he didn't want to. Neither the glory, nor the distance
eroded his interest in Romania and his compassion for the suffering
endured by the Romanians. I remember the day when he declared his
solidarity with the "University Square," and distanced himself from the
regime in Bucharest. I remember him asking: "What's new in the
country?" I remember the way he listened to my trivial stories about how
Bucharest looked.
All the theories of our "uninvolved people" sound very strange to me when
I recall him saying: once you exist "you can not be passive." I believe
Eugen Ionescu was more than a model artist. He was a model for his
refusal to be indifferent. He detested indifference as much as he
detested the "rhinocerising," and Beranger's cry of the final act of the
"Rhinoceros" - "I will remain a human to the end, I do not give up" -
could explain, I feel, why all the human causes find in Eugen Ionescu, a
defender. To him the indifference was not only immoral, it was an
offense against God and the world. "We can not simply fly away," he would
say. He had an obsession with time and death, but with few authors was I
able to understand that a love for life is not accomplished without
knowing that nothing is perpetual, that life is a mixture of miracles and
cruelty. Here maybe, in this tragic and vulnerable conscience is the
source for his fear of indifference. "I can not be happy unless I aim
toward something," confessed the creator of the absurd theater. But he
did not want to consider the world absurd. In believing that we would
consider ourselves more intelligent than God, he said..
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Among future subjects:
-.Romanian-American Academy of Arts and Science;
- Foundations in Romania;
- Romanian students around the World.
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This Weekly News Synthesis is possible thanks to financial support from the
Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe, technical support from the
Chico State University of California and donations from Romanians
permanently or temporarily outside Romania. The Foundation for
Communication Strategies is grateful for any support that would allow
improving the quality and timeliness of data on Romania.
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