Rubrics » Bridging News
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
In his article “Opioids and Paternalism”, Dr. David Brown described the new face of American drug addiction, “the new underclass is stymied by economic obsolescence, a sense of victimhood, and an exaggerated view of its own physical damage”. One of my former professors used to say, “don’t re-invent the wheel unnecessarily” to convey the idea that one does not need to create new analyses and methodologies for every problem. In addition to Dr. Brown’s sound scientific and psychological observations, I believe that we may also look to history for enlightenment regarding the current malaise. More
How the Latest Trump Tariffs Will Affect Romania
On March 1st, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration will unilaterally introduce new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in the United States of America. Officially motivated by national security concerns under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, the announcement follows a similar decision to unilaterally introduce new tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines, for reasons of unfair competition, taken at the end of January. Along with pressures for a redrawing of the North-American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada and the retreat from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the decision constitutes the most palpable expression to date of the United States’ new protectionist trade policy, to which Donald Trump alluded to since he was campaigning on an “America first” platform for the White House back in 2016. But unlike the solar panels and washing machines tariffs of a month and a half ago, which targeted primarily Chinese, South Korean and other Asian economies, the new steel and aluminum tariffs risk triggering a full-scale trade war with the European Union’s – still – 28 nations trade bloc, Romania included. More
How to Use Ancient War Strategies in Modern Business
“Marketplace is a battlefield” – a commonly used Chinese proverb, applicable today more than ever. As cross-cultural business consultants, we believe in strategy and clarity above all else, and who else to learn from if not Sun Tzu himself – the Chinese military tactician influencing strategic decision-making today despite having lived long before the formation of the PRC or the emergence of capitalism. Yet he claimed that the best battles are won without drawing swords. More
Commercial Reflections for a Centennial Romania: Trading Abroad Adds to the Prosperity of a Nation, Albeit National Prosperity Shall Never Be Tradable
In the history of a nation, its commercial relations with neighbouring countries or with those over the seas matter a great deal. Someone once said that, across centuries, the most common ways of interrelating between people were war and trade. Both activities have many advantages but also significant costs. History has shown that in the case of trade, the balance is tilted towards its benefits. Although they also participated in armed conflicts, most often against their will, the Romanians contributed to the history of Europe and the world especially by participating in cross-border trade. Who were their ancestors and what did they do? Who are their contemporaries, and most importantly what must they do? The answers to these questions rest on today’s youth, who are obliged to flesh them out and to better understand their past in order to become the main actors to bring about a positive change in the Romanian society. It is the authors’ hope that the work presented in article is going to contribute to the process of dealing with the various facets of the historical development of this nation, which has done well in the past and should take great pride in itself. More
Romania’s Anti-Communist Straussianism
The decision of the Bucharest Court of Justice on Friday, September 20th 2019, to uphold the verdict issued in May by the National Council for the Study of the Archives of the “Securitate” (CNSAS) regarding former President Traian Băsescu’s collaboration with the Communist regime’s secret police has been received with a sense of avenged satisfaction on the part of his long-time critics and adversaries. This was doubled by a feeling of avowed surprise on the part of his most loyal and ardent supporters. Neither of these opposite attitudes is however justified by a careful analysis of the country's recent politics. More
The COVID Crisis and the 2nd Pillar of the Romanian Pension System
Far from the public attention, the value of the assets held in the seven private funds that manage the pension money in Pillar II for seven and a half million future pensioners decreased dramatically in the second part of February and continued to decline during March, with the minimum being reached on the 18th of March 2020. More
Centuries of “Concrete”-Solid Discoveries of the Humankind: From Building the Roman Empire Towards Contemporary Buildings
Have you ever questioned what lies at the basis of the so-called highly-developed cities, at the foundation of the tallest buildings worldwide or how the infrastructure came to life? The answer is directed towards… concrete. It built the modern world step by step. The rock-solid history of the material we all know today was embodied in mystery since it is not known where it started or who exactly came up with the brilliant idea behind it. Various empires presided over an immense contribution towards finding the perfect recipe for building the concrete structures which remain a complex enigma for the architects or engineers today. The grey building slabs are considered to be a source of inspiration for many of the bricklayers in history that contributed with numerous attempts to discover the utopian recipes that the Romans for the specific built landscapes that characterized their empire. Currently, almost everything around us that is “tangible” and “real”, from the sidewalks to the bridges, are reliant on concrete. But very few of us acknowledge that. We might take it for granted, but this mixture comprises much of the constructed environment of modern civilization. More
The Effects of the Coronavirus on the Labor Markets in the EU
Romania was among the least affected EU Member States in Q2 2020 in terms of temporary layoffs, reduced working hours or job losses, according to the analysis published by Eurostat. The consequences of Covid19 pandemic varied significantly from one country to another, the most affected being Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Ireland and Greece. More
The Matter of Persia: Discerning Meaning from Strife and Unrest
The year 2018 began with a renewal of some of last year’s main geopolitical clashes, the most prominent being the nuclear threats exchanged between North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump, China’s President Xi Jinping delivering grim speeches to his army, urging troops to be ready for war, and analysts offering generally gloomy forecasts for this year. One other significant event that has erupted near the end of 2017 were the unexpected and violent protests in Iran that have continued up to at least the first week of 2018, with mass demonstrations held both for and against the country’s current government and an uncompromising crackdown by Iranian police. More
Amfiteatru Economic, the Measure of Lastingness
I started writing about economics and economy in the “big press”, both academic and mass-media, around the same time, somewhere in 2002. This, after having explored journalism during the university studies. I had understood the difference in the literary species between an article dedicated to the mass-media field and one published in academic journals, long before the biblio- and sciento-metric tsunami reached Romania, with its (inter)national indexations and citations of the scientific publications. More
What Does Brexit Reveal About Government Responsibility?
In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, Andrei Sandu relayed his observations on the emotional rift between the ‘remain’ and ‘leave’ voters. He noted how many citizens defined ‘leave vs. remain’ as ‘change vs. an unhappy status quo’. The government tried to push for unity, but it was clear that the UK had by then become a “fractured country”. More
Diaspora, in Theory and at Crossroads
Although it has been a developing field for some time, Diaspora Studies is a discipline which has remained unapproached at the academic level in our country. As the ‘diaspora’ has been more frequently mentioned in the media, in political debates and by the common people, it is necessary to understand the various aspects of the concept along with other connected ones. My two books, “Transnational Networks, Identities and Homes: South Asian Diasporic Women in Fiction and Film” (2017a) and “‘Love’ and ‘sisterhood’ in the Identities of Women in Novels by Writers of the South Asian Diaspora” (2017b), include several theories and large analyses on diaspora(s) and ‘home(s)’ (in the plural). More
