quarterly
VOLUME 1
ROXANA GARAIMAN
Maria Lucia Hohan
Starting with 800 Euros for two used
sewing machines, Maria is now
designing dresses for Hollywood stars
IULIA MARIN
The woman in the
blue dress
The spirit of the Revolution lives on in
Ioana-Izabela Oder
BIANCA FELSEGHI
The prince charles effect:
Prince Charles is doing more than buying
homes in Romania, he is preserving it
Photo Essay
1
THE PRESSONE WAY
The PressOne way is our belief that the best stories are
born when public interest meets a journalist’s personal
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It occurs when an undiscovered inflammable
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The PressOne journalist starts with an original idea or
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…… it continues with thorough documentation,
which is achieved by thinking of the reader, not of
somebody’s political or business interest
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PressOne Quarterly | Volume 1
……. and is completed with a combined package of
“text & image” meant to provide a unique satisfaction
to the reader as they have been respected, not lied to.
© 2016 / PressOne / All rights reserved
CONTENTS
07
07 / MARIA LUCIA HOHAN
Starting with 800 Euros for two used sewing machines, Maria is
now designing dresses for Hollywood stars
15 / THE PRINCE CHARLES EFFECT:
Prince Charles is doing more than buying homes in Romania, he
is preserving it
21 / THE WOMAN IN THE BLUE DRESS
The spirit of the Revolution lives on in Ioana-Izabela Oder
27 / THE GENIUS
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One of the greatest computer scientists of his time, Mihai
Patrascu, lived a life worth remembering
43 / SCHWEIGHOFER EXPOSED / BEHIND THE
INVESTIGATION THAT MOVED ROMANIA
Monica Lazurean Gorgan takes a big step in saving the
Romanian forests from the Austrian giant
51 / CLOTILDE ARMAND: I’VE GIVEN IT
MY ALL FOR ROMANIA
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A charismatic Frenchwoman is leading the movement changing
the way Romanians look at politics and government
59 / THE ROAD TO A STONE HOUSE
Chasing the buzz of an Indiegogo start-up, two young
Romanians find inspiration in a lost mountain village
67 / MARION, BORN MARIUCA
73 / PHOTO ESSAY
51
A creative look at Bucharest then and now
https://english.pressone.ro
An orphan of the Decree, Monica Le Roy Dagen, returns home to
find her parents
3
VOICU BOJAN
MIHNEA MARUTA
Voicu Bojan is the publisher of PressOne and
one of its three founders. He has over 10 years of
experience in print publications, including Esquire,
National Geographic Romania and LensWork, US.
Mihnea is the editor-in-chief of PressOne. He started
working in the media in 1990, fascinated by the
post-revolution political and social effervescence in
Romania.
He has over 20 years of experience as translator,
editor and publisher of books.
In 2007 he founded Diafragma9, a tool dedicated
to photographers passionate about storytelling.
Together with a few friends, they offer seminars,
street photography workshops (in Romania,
Cuba, India), plus a series of books helping
photographers to think more and release the
shutter less.
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PressOne Quarterly | Volume 1
He is in love with words and photographs. As a
journalist or travel writer, he tries to combine these
two means of expression.
Voicu is also in love with his wife, two boys,
one dog and an obscure hut on a mountain top
somewhere in Transylvania. Plus life in general.
Including off-road triathlons.
Over the past 26 years, he has been part of several
newsrooms in Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest, had the
privilege to run two national newspapers, but still
has butterflies in his stomach every time he signs a
piece.
He graduated in Philosophy and is passionate about
ideas and surprising connections, which he looks for
in books, movies and sports.
Mihnea has three daughters and finds it hard to
accept they already are teenagers. So he tries to
keep his mind in the present and find that balance
that is so rare nowadays.
Welcome
In September 2015, Voicu Bojan, Mihnea Maruta
and I formed PressOne, a different kind of media
company. We have no political or business agenda.
Our shared vision is to celebrate the dignity and joy
being Romanian.
Over the first 12 months, our team of journalists
has published over 700 stories in a style we call
the “PressOne Way”: honest, well-written text that
respects the reader. We are off to a good start with
over 1,500,000 readers in the first year. We have
large ambitions and still lots to learn.
After more than 110 transatlantic trips to Romania
since 2003, my many original false stereotypes
about Romania have been torn down. Romania is
quickly becoming recognized as one of the most
beautiful and safest places in all of Europe.
What I love most about Romania are the daily
reminders of its resilient human spirit. Despite
centuries of repression, the creativity, energy and
perseverance of Romanians bursts forth in every
aspect of life. Ordinary people are having an
extraordinary impact, improving individual lives
and the nation as a whole.
Good things are happening in Romania, and I look
forward to sharing them with you and your friends.
www.pressone.ro
Now we are sharing some of the PressOne stories
in an English print magazine - PressOne Quarterly
- with Romania-lovers around the world. We have
selected high quality paper and design, encouraging
readers to explore and understand the real Romania.
Your subscription of $50 a year will help support
PressOne and independent media in Romania.
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Maria Lucia Hohan, “we aren’t
owed a thing. Our dream has to
be earned every step of the way”
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ROXANA GARAIMAN
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Maria Lucia Hohan
Beyoncé’s new album, Lemonade, launched in April
this year, has set the fashion world abuzz with
another name: Maria Lucia Hohan. While the album
went gold after selling 500,000 copies in the first
week, the commentary also focused on Beyoncé’s
outfits.
One of these - a billowy dress named Meteora - is
tagged with the Romanian MLH label and has
attracted the attention of big-name magazines like
Billboard Magazine.
Although some of the biggest names in
entertainment have worn her creations - among
them Nicole Kidman, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, and
Rihanna – Maria Lucia Hohan is not a household
name in Romania.
Maria’s journey into the world of fashion started ten
years ago after graduating from L’Institut Supérieur
des Arts Appliqués in Paris. She began her career as
an intern at the Krizia fashion label in Milan. From
Milan, she returned to Bucharest to open her own
shop with a modest 800 Euro investment.
Despite her success with the upper echelons of
Hollywood royalty and growing business, Maria
Lucia Hohan maintains a low profile in public life.
We discovered that she reads PressOne, and were
very grateful that she granted us the privilege of an
interview.
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We understand that you initially wanted to focus
on interior design and only later decided on
fashion. How did the transition take place?
Maria Lucia Hohan: It was both a choice and an
opportunity. The passion for interior design didn’t
go anywhere, but it was hard for an 18 year old to
pass up the opportunity to study fashion design in
Paris. Fashion eventually won me over and I made a
career out of it.
There are quite a few similarities between the two
fields. I often find myself changing the interiors of
my home, office, or even places I visit on vacation.
What is the life of Fashion Design students in
Paris like?
Pretty much like that of any other student in the
most beautiful city in the world. Obviously, I didn’t
have access to all the great things that such an
amazing city can offer, but there were the museums,
the streets, and the spectacular architecture. I
remember how I loved mornings, simply because of
the thought that I’d get to see Paris again.
I would take the bus and my eyes would take in
everything I saw on the other side of the window,
I’d look at the people around me and it was easy to
understand why they seemed so happy, so satisfied
with life. The place you live in, or where you learn,
has a great influence on your well-being.
I really loved every moment of it. I feel as though the
years I spent ‘acquiring’ all of that cultural baggage
have shaped me even more so than my formal
education. The environment also contributed,
everything was new and different, from the language
to the way I did my personal banking.
In the “Freedom” music video, Beyoncé is
shown wearing the Meteora dress designed
by Maria Lucia Hohan.
Nicole Kidman chose this image, in which she wears an MLH dress, as the cover of her Facebook page in 2013.
What are the stylistic influences you’ve retained
from that era?
I have an appreciation for French lingerie, for their
interiors, for their very natural, understated sense
of style, the obsession with comfort – which is
why I wanted to transform the evening gown into
something more simple and comfortable. Without
the accessories and the restrictions they bring.
What are some of the lessons you learned during
your internship with Krizia?
Krizia was a very positive experience. The most
important lesson was the realization that I wanted
to have my own business and that I wanted to live
in Romania.
And I do feel I have to expand on this point a bit.
Nobody gets discovered by just hanging out at home.
You have to go out, search, create database sheets,
network, be persistent, fight for yourself, and hustle.
I try to pass on this message to the young people
I meet. We aren’t owed a thing. The status, career,
salary, or recognition we dream about has to be
earned every step of the way.
Why did you come back home so quickly?
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I called my parents and told them I’d be coming
back to Romania to start my own shop. They were
surprised, but it wasn’t unexpected either. Both my
parents had their own businesses and built their
own dreams since right after the revolution. That’s
always been the model for me.
Photo: MLH
When I first visited Krizia, I noticed they had a Mac
desktop that nobody was using. I was taken in by
all the possibilities that online creative software
offered. So I brought to the founder’s attention how
we might integrate online work with hand-sewn
designs and patterns. The idea was well received
and I got the opportunity to learn a lot. It didn’t come
out of the blue though. I’d sent out my portfolio to
hundreds of places, but Krizia was one of the few
that called me back.
Maria Lucia Hohan
How did you launch the Maria Lucia Hohan
brand?
Brands take years to build. I opened a shop with an
800 Euro investment and two second-hand sewing
machines. My father helped me with the money.
The brand came later.
With whom did you work to develop your
marketing strategy?
Our school emphasized the importance of fashion
marketing. You don’t learn everything, but you get a
good idea about where to start.
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I learned quite a bit on my own, trying to understand
as much as possible. I based a lot of it on gut instinct
and online marketing. Later, when I could afford
them, I started working with agencies. Even so, I still
tend to do a lot of my own marketing.
I know that Romanian managers are often accused
of micro-management, but when you’re dealing
with a fashion brand, details are important. It is
critical to be authentic.
MLH is my name, Maria Lucia Hohan, so I feel
responsible for it. It’s all very personal.
Who were the first celebrities to wear MLH (in
Romania and abroad)?
Andreea Raicu in Romania and Jennifer Hudson in
the USA.
Jennifer Hudson wore an MLH dress at Barack
Obama’s 2011 birthday festivities and she has since
selected MLH dresses for many other events.
Paris Hilton takes a selfie with an MLH dress.
Maria Lucia Hohan and Andreea Raicu at the 2015
Elle Awards. (Photo: andreearaicu.ro)
Kate Hudson posing in an MLH dress for
the Vanity Fair Oscar Party Studio.
Do your sales spike when a MLH dress is worn
by a celebrity or when it’s profiled in a widely
circulated magazine?
It depends on who wore the dress, the accompanying
accessories, and the reaction of the public and
critics.
There are cases, too, like Beyoncé’s, where the star
power helps sell a particular dress.
It’s a very long road that may even take years. It
requires a mix of luck, perseverance, and consistent
quality. It’s usually a celebrity’s fashion stylist who
will recommend an outfit, but getting to them can be
complicated. It’s a mix of international press, online
marketing, agencies, and intermediaries.
How did you manage to make it into the world
of Hollywood celebrities?
Online marketing had a lot to do with it. How else
can anyone make it from a shop in Romania to the
American A-Lister’s shortlist?
Photo: MLH
In general it’s important for the brand to get this
kind of visibility, but buyers are interested in other
factors – production, delivery, quality, relevance in
the marketplace, and only later the celebrities who
might be wearing the dresses.
What is the process whereby one of your creations
becomes the beneficiary of celebrity promotion?
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Maria Lucia Hohan
Rihanna posing in an MLH dress for
a sock collection launched this past Spring
What is something about the fashion industry
that the public at large may not understand?
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PressOne Quarterly | Volume 1
It’s starting to decline, eaten up from the inside
by greed. The focus is only on ROI (Return on
Investment), on bigger profits, and an increasing
obsession with the already excessive consumerism
that doesn’t serve anybody’s interest, not even in
the short-term.
We’re up to six collections in a year from two. We’re
working a year ahead for every season, just to keep
up with worldwide delivery schedules. The pressure
is unrelenting but I think it’s important for smaller
brands to exist alongside the giants of the industry.
It’s these shops that are able to provide innovation,
quality, and custom-made designs at more accessible
prices. They also tend to work with well-paid teams
where everyone receives respect and appreciation.
Over the past ten years there’s been a dramatic
decline in the quality of consumer fashion.
Fashion, after all, is more than just the hue of the
season. And now it’s beginning to lose this enchanting
aspect of pageantry, of its proximity to art, to personal
expression, to identity and interpretation.
I’m well aware that it’s always been, and will
continue to remain, a business. But I believe it’s
possible to also put your soul into it, as well as
common sense.
Who are some of the big names who have worn
the MLH label to date?
Quite a few, including: Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Kate
Hudson, Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez,
Dita von Teese, Nicole Kidman, Kelly Rowland, Goldie
Hawn, Paris Hilton, Eva Longoria, Gigi Hadid, Kandell
Janner, Karlie Kloss, Mena Suvari, Giuliana Rancic,
Christina Aguilera, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sofia
Vergara, Maria Sharapova, Shakira, Katherine Heigl,
Vanessa Hudgens, Rihanna, and many wonderful
Romanian women who’ve made me very proud.
What is the story behind the Meteora dress?
It’s a dress made for the Resort collection, that I
based on my own personal style, and I didn’t expect
that it would sell all that well, even before it was
worn by Beyoncé.
I wore it many times, pretty convinced that the
indiscernible silhouette made out of silk and lace
would only be selected by a few clients. It went on to
be a lot bigger than I’d imagined.
As a designer, what has been your most moving
moment?
When Jennifer Lopez wore an MLH outfit for the
first time she wrote on Facebook that it was one
of her favorites. Then her stylist got in touch to tell
me that she wanted to buy it. It was the first time a
celebrity bought an outfit directly.
How are prices set in this very high-end industry?
In the consumer market prices are different from
one retailer to another. As for MLH, I take into
consideration a balanced outlook between the price,
quality, and availability.
What would you say about the prices of
MLH fashion as compared to other high-end
designers?
They’re more affordable.
How often do you travel overseas?
I try to avoid traveling too far from my family.
How do you maintain a work-life balance?
I choose to attend a limited number of events, I try
to keep my private life to myself, and I focus more on
family than my career.
The fashion industry can overwhelm you if you’re
not careful. I also keep a close eye on our growth to
make sure it doesn’t get out of hand.
How much time do you spend sourcing
materials?
I’ve never looked at it as a time sensitive issue; it’s
part of the creative process. Actually, it is my favorite
part.
Which of your clients come closest to the ideal
model as you design your outfits?
My friends.
Is your daughter also passionate about fashion?
She comes to the shop with me and is fascinated by
the MLH universe – which she has at home as well.
What’s your greatest satisfaction?
That I can have it all: Family, friends, and a career.
Photo: MLH
Maria Lucia Hohan wearing
the Meteora dress.
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Jennifer Lopez wore her first MLH outfit on the 2011 premiere of American Idol. The reactions were so positive that
she’s taken to wearing MLH at many red carpet appearances.
Jennifer Lopez in an MLH dress at the “What to
expect when you’re expecting” premiere in 2012.
Dita Von Teese wearing the MLH, Madison Gown, in 2013
at the Fragrance Foundation Awards in New York City.
The Prince Charles Effect:
Transylvanian Saxon Zone Becomes
a Protected Area
BIANCA FELSEGHI
In 2016, Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel named Transylvania as it’s number one
destination. In fact, Transylvania is becoming increasingly more popular in all
kinds of foreign tourist destination guides. Why is the world suddenly recognizing
the beauty of Romania?
Since the Prince started periodical visits to
Romania, significant funding has been directed
to the Mures, Sibiu, Brasov and Covasna
counties for protecting and capitalizing Saxon
heritage.
15
One of the main Saxon attractions is the fortified
church of Biertan (photo by Lucian Muntean)
Photo: Lucian Muntean
One explanation is the number of projects
launched by NGOs interested in the Saxon
cultural area. And the main catalyst behind this
phenomenon is none other than Prince Charles
of Great Britain.
The Prince Charles Effect: Transylvanian Saxon Zone Becomes a Protected Area
Proof of the special interest in the Saxon area is a
Ministerial Order that will come into force at the
end of the year protecting the Hârtibaciului Plateau
– defined as an area to the south of Târnava Mare
and north of the Olt River. The new status protects
the natural and historic heritage of the area.
A second major effort still in the implementation
phase is formerly classifying Hârtibaciului Plateau,
dubbed ‘Hills of Transylvania’, as an eco-tourism
destination by the Ministry of Tourism.
At present, only two areas in Romania hold this
special status given by the National Authority for
Tourism: Zarnesti (in Brasov county) and MaraCosau-Creasta Cocosului (Maramures county).
Both projects - protected area and eco-tourism
destination - are driven through WWF Romania.
WWF is the world’s largest conservation
organization.
PROTECTED AREA
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A 12.6 million Lei (2.8 million Euro) project
co-financed through the European Regional
Development Fund in the larger Environment
Operational Program is under development for the
Hârtibaciului Plateau. In addition to WWF Romania,
two other NGOs close to Prince Charles are involved:
Adept and Mihai Eminescu Trust.
The area for the project is spread across 267,438
hectares, involving 90,000 inhabitants amongst 44
villages.
“The integrated management plan for the protected
areas on the Hârtibaciului-Târnava Mare-Olt
Plateau was finalized this year, went through public
consultation and debate throughout the entire area
with various public audiences, and then was sent to
the Environment, Waters and Forests Ministry for
approval. Currently, it is still awaiting approval. In
a few months a Ministerial Order will bring it into
action,” says Mara Cazacu, WWF Communication
officer for the project.
The area in question contains priceless cultural
and ecological sites such as Sighisoara, oak and
hornbeam forests from Dosul Fânatului and Dealu
Purcaretul, the Secular Oaks Natural Reservation
from Breite, Mihaileni Canyon and the Downy Oak
Reservation from Cris village.
According to WWF Romania, Hârtibaciului Plateau
could very well be “the most attractive rural,
traditional and multicultural landscape in Central
Europe. Here, local communities proudly protect
the mosaic-like views with well-kept villages while
continuing to make a living through local produce
and services created through the sustainable use of
natural resources and cultural values.”
You stumble over fortified churches nearly everywhere in Transylvania, with Biertan and
Viscri considered to be the most beautiful. When the wind blows through the wooden blinds,
painted in pastel colors, and the Roma villagers, dressed in scarlet clothing are seen in the
fields, this area throws a powerful spell at its visitors.
ECO-TOURISM DESTINATION
For an area to receive an eco-tourism destination
status it must fulfill four conditions:
Attractive appeal - that is, to include at least one
protected natural area;
Accessibility – can be reached via public and private
transport;
Provide at least minimal tourist services - room and
board, tourist paths and activities based on nature
and environmental conservation;
Provide adequate public services - health, education,
waste disposal, and financial.
Concurrently, WWF is developing two other projects
inside the protected area financed through the
Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Program. These are
“Nature 2000 and rural development in Romania”,
which supports green business startups, and
“Agricultural Lands with High Natural Value and
Rural Development in Romania.”
The latter is focused on finding solutions to promote
market access for regional agricultural production.
Ever since 2002, the heir to the British Crown has
visited the Saxon area at least once a year and
purchased several properties.
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“Aside from these mandatory requirements, the area
considers additional criteria such as sustainable
management, maximizing benefits for communities,
nature and cultural heritage,” says Mara Cazacu.
For the second project, WWF is working with the
Mioritics Association along with the Adept and
Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundations and is financed
through the Romanian-American Foundation.
© Photo: Mircea Rosca www.ActionFoo.ro
Aside from his house in Viscri (Brasov County),
which has been intensely presented in the media,
Prince Charles also owns the Apafi Manor of
Malancrav (Sibiu County), and four residences in
Valea Zalanului (Covasna County).
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His link to Transylvania is one of the reasons why
Lonely Planet, a British publication, has recently
recommended the region to its readers.
“Prince Charles’ support of various conservation
efforts in Transylvania is notable, but we also had other
reasons for placing Transylvania first place in our Top
10 of places to visit in 2016. As our guide clearly states,
Transylvania is witnessing a revival,” said Rebecca
Law, PR & Communications Manager for EMEA
with Lonely Planet to PressOne.
The link between Buckingham Castle and
Brasov is not immediately evident, but Prince
Charles supports numerous conservation
projects in Transylvania. The Prince even
planted wild flowers at Highgrove Gardens
to remind him, and England, of the simple
life in Transylvania. - Lonely Planet
There are several other initiatives aimed at
conserving or reviving traditions in Romania’s
Saxon area. For example: The Monumentum
Association set up a traditional roof tile workshop
in Apos, the Adept Foundation and the local
administration from Saschiz opened a pottery
workshop to produce traditional ceramics once
again, and the Mihai Eminescu Trust coordinates
a cultural tourism project in Malancrav, where
tourists can take part in actual craftsmen activities
during its frequent ‘open days’.
In 2014, Prince Charles participated in the opening
of the Center for processing fruits and vegetables
in Saschiz, Mures County.
The other foundation involved in major projects in
the area, Mihai Eminescu Trust, has been receiving
support from Prince Charles since 2003.
This year, in Viscri, the heir to the British
crown launched his own charitable foundation
supporting conserving traditions, agriculture and
sustainable development in Romania.
Prince Charles sampling local foods.
© Photo: Mircea Rosca www.ActionFoo.ro
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The Woman in the Blue Dress
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IULIA MARIN
“Around 5 a.m. on the 14th, everything seemed to be over. Amid a sinister
silence, facing the sun as it was beginning to rise, a hideous shadow crept
in from Piata Victoriei accompanied by a blood-curdling rumble in a tense
crescendo (which would turn into a grotesque patter of feet). The first
squadrons of miners were occupying University Square.”
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The Woman in the Blue Dress
Ioana-Izabela Odor, October 2015. Photo: Lucian Muntean
Photographer Andrei Iliescu is describing a photo
album he had just posted to Facebook. The day was
June 14, 1990.
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A France Presse correspondent, Andrei Iliescu climbs
the stairs to the first floor of the Intercontinental
Hotel, and from its ring-shaped balcony, snaps shots
of the horrors taking place below.
“The miners were hitting anybody they came across,
men, women, children. Every once in a while they
would glance up at me and threaten me with their
cudgels.”
Around 7 a.m., he captures one of the most iconic
images of the June 13-15 riots.
A dark-haired woman in a blue dress and sandals is
grabbed and carried through the air by two young
men wearing miners’ helmets and coveralls. All
those around her are menacingly clutching their
truncheons and cudgels. The woman wraps her tense
fingers around her raffia bag. It looks as if an entire
world is in danger. Nobody comes to her rescue.
25 years later, former President Ion Iliescu, who
had thanked the miners for “establishing order” in
University Square, is being prosecuted for “crimes
against humanity” in the June 1990 riots.
Today, we wanted to find out who the woman in the
blue dress was, if she was still alive, and if she was
still in the country. We looked, and we found her.
“I’D RATHER BE A LOAFER...”
Her name is Ioana-Izabela Odor, she used to work as a
researcher for the Metrology Institute and is 64 years
old. She is retired now, and receives us in a small
room full of paperwork, stamps, and receipts. The
brave woman from 1990 has no intention of being
idle - she is president of her tenants association.
Izabela Odor was among those who had pinned a
“Loafer” badge on her lapel in protest of Ion Iliescu’s
labeling of the University Square demonstrators.
For 52 days in the spring of 1990, the center of
Romania’s capital was occupied by citizens unwilling
to accept that the second echelon members of the
former Communist Party had clung to power under
the guise of the National Salvation Front, despite
Iliescu’s initial promises that the Front would not
morph into a political party.
Thousands of people - in fact, tens of thousands at
the apex of what was a marathon demonstration
- were congregating every evening to listen to
speeches delivered from the University balcony,
to pray and to sing. One particular chorus would
become emblematic for the protest:
I’d rather be a drifter
Than a traitor,
I’d rather be a hooligan
Than a dictator,
I’d rather be a loafer
Than a party cadre,
I’d rather be dead
Than a communist!
The University Square phenomenon began on April
22, 1990, but lost its momentum and magnetism
after Iliescu’s landslide victory in the May 20
elections where he received 85% of the votes and
the National Salvation Front got 66%. The Student
League had withdrawn from the protest and only a
handful of people were still gathering at night. The
enthusiasm and hope had all but disappeared.
On the morning of June 13, the police received
orders to clear out the Square and the City Hall sent
equipment to pick up the tents, blankets, placards
and personal belongings of those still remaining in
the self-declared “neo-communism-free zone”.
Izabela Odor put on her lapel pin badge and went to
sing “We’re not leaving here, we’re not going home”
one more time.
BUT THAT DID NOT STOP HER.
“And they started to beat me...”
“That night, the 13th to 14th of June, I
listened to the BBC and understood the
miners had arrived in Bucharest. Leaving
my relatives’ home, I took the subway to
University Square at 7 in the morning. So
I reach the boulevard, where the Liberal
Party now has their headquarters, across
the street from Dalles. There, at the top of
the building, was the supervisory unit of my
institute. Across the street, the miners were
beating a gray-haired man wearing a white
shirt. They were covering him in blood.”
Izabela Odor says it did not occur to her to keep
quiet and walk on. What’s more, she actually took
the old man’s aggressors to task.
THIS IS HER TESTIMONY
“I started to make a scene: What’s this? Is this
democracy? The miners surrounded me. A guy in a
blue overalls and a workers’ helm, which sat all wrong
on his head, appeared. He had a long rod, a ruler.
I was talking, speaking loudly. He started yelling:
“Misses, get to work! To work, misses!”
“But what are you doing here?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah?” he replied and whistled with two fingers
in his mouth.
The next moment, I’m telling you, I have no idea
where from, a bunch of strong men in black coveralls
appeared. They started to give me a taste of their
truncheons... I don’t know what they were, they
pretended to be miners, but their coveralls were new
- black and new.
23
The violence got out of control after several police
buses were set on fire - which proved to be the
provocation intended to justify the authorities’ use
of force.
Izabela Odor, who was 39 at the time, rushed to
her relatives to watch the televised coverage of the
events unfolding in the square. “Of course they were
not broadcasting anything, just some lies,” she now
recalls.
They hit me twice, like this, and I slapped one
of them - whack! And they started to beat me. A
beating with rubber truncheons ensued. Of course it
hurt, they took my hands, you can see in the picture,
and from the Liberal Party headquarters, there, they
crossed the boulevard with me to take me... “To the
Police! To the Police!” they were shouting.
“BEAT HER! HIT HER!” I WAS
SHOUTING, “DOWN WITH ILIESCU!”.
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PressOne Quarterly | Volume 1
Nobody came to her rescue. The street was not
deserted, but the few women there were actively
encouraging the miners.
“When they started beating me, there were a couple
of women in the street. One of them, slightly older, you
know, the type with large grocery bags, as we used
to say, and another one that I’d had an argument
with the previous evening. Well, what I couldn’t
understand was... a bunch of women see another
woman grabbed and dragged by huge men, and they
shout encouragements: There you go! Beat her!
Hit her! I was shouting, ‘Down with Iliescu!’. So
the men grabbed me from under the women’s noses
and dragged me across the street. We arrived at the
Batistei intersection where I tripped and fell at their
feet. I told myself, “That’s the end of you, honey!
This is where you die!”
She was afraid the miners would kick her. She
knows, as she did back then, that they could have
murdered or mutilated her. To this day she thanks
God she managed to get away.
“They picked me up and carried me towards the
National Theatre... Or was it a hotel? I don’t remember.
There it was full of miners, black coveralls left and
right... But in the lobby there was a guy in a white
shirt who was presented all that were captured. There
was another woman there, and a man, older than me,
who’d also been beaten. It was my understanding
they were sending them to the Coltea Hospital. I told
the guy, ‘Mister, I am going to work! What have
you got against me? I live in the neighborhood!’
He looks at me and says, ‘Let her be!’
They led me cross the University Square and they
brought me towards the Army House, ‘Lady, go from
here...’ I kept telling him this and that, that it’s not
right. I didn’t feel how badly beaten I was because I
was in shock. You can imagine. But I kept preaching, I
was telling him, ‘History shall punish you!’
Then he said to me, ‘Lady, these people have come
here directly from their shifts and we cannot
control them anymore!’ He even introduced himself,
I don’t remember his name, but he was an engineer.
Close to home, I came across the two women with
grocery bags, “Aha! They beat you! Serves you well!”
Izabela Odor has let go of the hatred. Today, she is able to smile.
“LET THERE BE A SENTENCE,
EVEN A SUSPENDED SENTENCE”
All these years, Izabela Odor has had mixed feelings
about Ion Iliescu. At first, she hated him. When the
miners came again to Bucharest in the fall of 1991 to
topple Petre Roman’s government, she thought she
was witnessing the fall of Iliescu’s power too.
Although she had barely escaped the previous year,
she mingled among them. The miners were shouting
slogans against Roman, she was shouting, ‘Down
with Iliescu!’
Later, during the 1996 elections when Emil
Constantinescu won, she thought justice would be
done. But in 2000 she saw Iliescu take up quarters
at the Cotroceni Palace once again.
“Yes!”
“Europe looked upon us accordingly, the whole world
saw what Iliescu did. They saw his autocratic attitude
and how he instigated one social group against
another. He turned the miners, if there were really
miners among them, against protesters for freedom.
Using bludgeons and beatings instead of a peaceful
exchange of ideas.”
Did she ever have nightmares, was she ever afraid to
walk down the street at night all these years?
“No. I was so convinced I had done the right thing, so
convinced that one day justice would be done, that I
never experienced fear.”
She no longer has the blue dress. She gave it away
one rainy day to a woman with a small child. Izabela
is a real treasure of a woman.
She accompanies us to the door of her apartment
building, and, as we’re trotting down the stairs, she
exclaims with a smile: “Goodbye, and... you know,
‘Down with Iliescu!’”
25
“I would like to see a sentence, even a suspended
sentence. Well, because he asked the miners to come,
he thanked them! Later, for humanitarian reasons,
let’s say, he doesn’t actually have to go to jail... But
history has to record that he got punished for this. I’m
not keen on seeing Iliescu shackled, but something
After all these years in which the perpetrators have
enjoyed protection - I ask her - was it worth getting
beaten in the University Square?
Photo: Lucian Muntean
Now, after she has found out that the three-time
President will be prosecuted for the miners’ riots of
June 1990, she does not necessarily picture him in
handcuffs.
like this must never happen again, that’s the idea.”
The Genius
ANDREI CRACIUN
Born on July 17th, 1982 in Craiova and deceased on June 5th,
2012 in New York, Mihai Patrascu was the most important
Romanian computer scientist of his time.
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WITH ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS FROM VLAD STOICESCU
27
The Genius
Those who understood his genius say he single
handedly revitalized an entire field of research.
This article pays tribute to Mihai Pătrașcu as seen
through the eyes and hearts of the most important
people in his life.
PROLOGUE
Mihai Pătrașcu revolutionized theoretical computer
science, though he graduated from “Carol I” National
College in Craiova where his school had no computer
science curriculum.
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He excelled at his field at MIT, one of world’s most
prestigious Computer Science programs. During
his first year in America he was named the top
Computer Science student in the United States.
Mihai Pătrașcu with Olympian students.
Mihai Pătrașcu was accustomed to being first.
He actually authored the questions for Computer
Science Olympiads and held his own conferences
wherever Computer Science conferences were held.
In less than three decades of life he managed to get
married, divorced, remarried, cross a continent,
climb Kilimanjaro, travel the world and make a name
for himself among the most prestigious researchers
in America.
He taught himself Mandarin in just a few weeks. He
didn’t wear a suit. He never held a nine to five job. In
his own words, he was a rebel. He was tough but fair
to colleagues in the Computer Science community.
He was loved but feared.
Mihai Pătrașcu was always someone special.
A young Mihai with
his parents.
INTRODUCTION
I first heard about Mihai’s life in a Bucharest tavern.
It was one of those early summer days where the
lust for life abounds. Friends were gathered around
a table eating grilled squid with Greek music
serenading in the background.
One friend at the table, Corina Tarniță, a young
mathematics researcher, made a comment about
her ex-husband that mesmerized me. I needed to
learn more about this guy.
My search began with Mihai’s 30-year-old sister,
Carmen. We met early on an August morning and
her blindingly intelligent eyes and lucid expressions
immediately impressed me. We laughed quite a lot
as she told us some of Mihai’s favorite jokes.
Carmen also holds a Ph.D. in Science. She studied at
the Polytechnic University in Bucharest and can tell
you a lot about synthetic aperture radar or about
the European Space Agency. She still teaches at the
Polytechnic and does image processing work for the
mobile phone industry.
Mihai Pătrașcu’s parents have been marked by this
tragedy. His father wears a long, white patriarchal
beard. Some nights he writes poems. His mother
breathes to the rhythm of a troubling fragility.
I went up the stairs and gazed at Mihai’s book
collection. An entire shelf was dedicated to Agatha
Christie. Novels that didn’t put his formidable mind
to work bored him.
PART 1: MIHAI AND CARMEN
Mihai was four years older than Carmen. They
weren’t just brother and sister. They were best
friends. Decades ago, an innocent conversation took
place between the two children. “Do we have to like
our relatives?”
They reached the conclusion that they didn’t have
to like people just because they were relatives. They
also concluded they would have liked each other
even if they hadn’t been siblings.
Mihai didn’t mentor Carmen, and she didn’t try to
copy his passions. She never took much interest in
his computer science achievements. On the contrary,
Mihai followed Carmen in her passion for guitar.
29
We drove to Craiova to meet Mihai’s parents,
mathematics Professor Mariana Pătrașcu and
dermatologist Virgil Pătrașcu. It’s horrible to stare
at people in mourning and tell them you would like
to see old photos of their deceased son.
Many times, silence prevailed. We stayed in the
living room, looking at their dead son’s portrait
without saying a word.
The Genius
“Our folks wanted to send him to the
Children’s Club, but there weren’t any
open spots left for electronics. They
were offered Computer Science as
an alternative. Mother had finished
Mathematics and Computer Science, but
she had only seen two computers in her
life. Both were old and card-based. We
were far behind the rest of the world, but
she said ‘OK’, and that’s how it started.”
She already played it well when her brother tried his
first chords. Mihai liked Romanian rock. His favorite
bands were Phoenix and Cargo. Once, he even
composed a song about a bear and a sand storm.
Mihai inspired Carmen to be curious, to believe in
herself, to follow through her work from start to
finish, and to seize all of life’s moments.
KNOWLEDGE
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Carmen and Mihai came from a family of intellectuals.
Their mother’s parents were teachers. Their
paternal grandfather, a math professor, founded the
school in Craiova where his grandchildren began
their education. Their uncle excelled in engineering
and has been living in Philadelphia for decades.
“When I was very young Mihai gave
me one of the first books he owned, a
Computer Science book, and he wrote
this dedication on it: ‘Always ask yourself
what books cannot answer’ That really
hit home with me,” Carmen recalls.
Mihai discovered his vocation very quickly. He
started learning Computer Science in 2nd grade at a
Children’s Club in Craiova.
The fad, back then, was for boys to specialize in
electronics:
He participated in the Olympiad when he was very
young, going against peers older than him. In third
grade he won first prize, which was the beginning
of many.”
Mihai excelled in all subjects, though math came
easiest to him. Mihai did not endear himself to
his colleagues during his first few years at school.
To them, he was a bigheaded geek. He didn’t pay
much attention to them either. With every passing
year, though, as Mihai was making history in the
United States, he gained the respect of his former
classmates.
Mihai’s thirst for knowledge was insatiable. Carmen
remembers him reading pages from Wikipedia
when he had a free moment. At the time, Wikipedia
was foreign to most of us.
Mihai did little programming until college - when
he found his niche in Theoretical Computer Science.
This is where he started to work wonders. His work
received thousands of citations from internationally
renowned authors. For the theoretical part of his
work, he didn’t even need a computer. A paper and
pencil were the only tools he required.
NOSTALGIA
Carmen was proud of her brother. It wasn’t an empty
or absurd pride, the kind that screams “Wow, he’s
famous, people know him...” It was different: pride
in the fact he did what he liked and was very good
at it.
31
Mihai never spent a lot of money, but he didn’t rob
himself of his passion to travel the world.
Photo: personal archive
They loved the mountains. It was a common
passion and they hiked together often. For Mihai,
the mountain vistas represented a world without
limits. But Mihai never forgot his math problems
while hiking. On the contrary, he kept processing
and pioneering new frontiers.
“We had millions of plans,” recounts Carmen.
“We wanted to travel the Trans-Siberia and
Peru. Mihai liked Peru the most of all the
countries he visited because it reminded
him of his childhood in Romania.”
The Genius
Mihai in Peru (left), and in China.
DEATH
Mihai was diagnosed with Glioblastoma in January
2011 after returning from a ski trip with severe
headache. Told he would not live longer than 18
months with this incurable cancer, Mihai made it to
the 18th month. When cancer took away his right
hand, he continued to solve problems on random
pieces of scrap paper with his left hand. Cancer
never stole his determination or zest for life.
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It’s hard to talk about death. A moment creeps in
when Cami lowers her voice and says, “I miss him. We
used to talk about anything and everything. He was
my best friend. A large chunk of my life disappeared
with him.”
Though Mihai is gone, his story continues and their
mutual friends often bring him up in conversation.
Carmen doesn’t go to the cemetery and leaves no
flowers on his grave. She doesn’t think it’s a place
where she’ll meet her brother.
Carmen would not like us to write pathetically about
her brother.
“Mihai was very complex, you know? He
wasn’t obsessed with work. He led a very full
life - had a beautiful family life, he wanted
to learn many things, you know, honestly
curious about everything that happened
around him. He understood current events
and geopolitics just as well as the scientific
article he would write the following day. He
was a truly remarkable researcher, but also
so much more. He wasn’t just the sum of his
academic achievements.”
Carmen Pătrașcu, Mihai Pătrașcu’s sister.
“Mihai wanted to come back home, he was
very patriotic in this way, but things weren’t
very easy in Romania at the time. One of the
things that annoyed him was if you wanted
to get a research grant, you had to commit
to the end result. But that’s what research is
about - it may or it may not work. You could
have some hypothesis about the outcome...
But you can’t submit to a rule that states
that if you don’t get the expected results
then your work won’t be financed. It’s
stupid. Mihai didn’t like stupid things.”
PART II: CORINA AND MIHAI
Corina and Mihai met in 1998 while vacationing in
Greece. It was a prize for the Romanian Olympiad
winners. She had won the Math Olympiad and he
had won in Computer Science.
It is easy to imagine Ms. Tarniță as the most beautiful
girl at the event and the young Mr. Pătrașcu charming
her with his brilliant intelligence.
When they were married, recounts Corina, they
were too young and too stubborn. Neither knew
what it meant to build a life with someone. It wasn’t
America that split them apart, it was maturity.
Divorced, they continued to respect each other,
maybe even love each other. They talked about
science and co-signed scientific papers, but they
somehow stopped being husband and wife.
GENIUS
What’s it like living with a genius? Corina assures
us it’s extraordinary and normal at the same time:
“It’s extraordinary to live with someone who doesn’t
accept anything as dogma, but tries to understand
everything himself, starting from axioms, from basic
principles. And he doesn’t just try, he succeeds.”
All the same, Mihai led a normal and balanced life;
went to the movies, took long walks, worked out,
had beer with friends, went to the supermarket –
where novelty candy fascinated him.
33
Mihai took the first step. He asked for her friendship.
They were both deeply committed to high
performance in education and becoming leaders
in their field. They also made time for a normal
adolescent life. Love would have to come later.
The Genius
“I went to America with
Mihai mostly because of
him. Before we met, I knew
Harvard would be my ideal
choice, but I don’t know if I
would have had the courage
to leave home. Mihai was
the kind of person who stuck
to his guns when he put his
mind to something. I remain
profoundly indebted to him
for convincing me to follow
my dream.”
Corina Tarniță,
Mihai Pătrașcu’s first wife.
Corina would go on to tell us something that would
take our breath away:
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“I was very impressed when Mihai wanted to tell me
about his disease in person, although we had been
divorced for years. He had moved to New York, but we
met in Boston and chatted for a few hours. We saw
each other again in New York, by chance, during his
treatment.
“Then the horrifying news came - a message from
Mihai in which he told me that he only had a few
months to live and that he wanted to see me. I visited
him at his New York apartment and we talked for
hours about everything - life, death, spirituality, the
meaning of it all, science, people. It was one of our
most profound and direct conversations. Even at
the very end, Mihai remained a fantastically lucid
scientist. I told him about my research and he asked
me dozens of questions, sometimes coming from
angles that I hadn’t even thought of. He reminded me
of our most precious moments together, and when I
left I felt a profound pain. I knew I wasn’t going to see
him again.”
Clinging to hope, Corina searched online for miracle
cures, revolutionary treatment and suggested world
renowned doctors to Mihai. He didn’t respond to
any of her messages.
Then, Corina started to send him jokes and he
replied instantly. They kept in touch like that for the
last six weeks of his life.
“Mihai was entirely special. At any moment
- even when he was out shopping or when
he brushed his teeth, he could think of an
extremely complex problem. The mental
workout to which he subjected himself
was incredible, even though people around
him had no clue. But he knew when to take
breaks and how to enjoy them.”
PART III: MIHAI AND HIS PARENTS
It’s autumn when we reach Craiova. Mihai’s parents
live in a two-story house close to the city center.
Virgil Pătrașcu M.D. wears his white beard as a sign
of mourning. Professor Mariana Pătrașcu takes a long
look at us, as if wondering why we’re here.
They agree to talk about their departed son. They
show us his medals and diplomas. They retell old
stories. An almost physical sense of sadness hovers
over everything.
They are proud of what their son has accomplished.
Not many finished their Ph.D. in record time,
especially in America. Not many have stepped on the
podium as many times as Mihai. Computer scientists
don’t get to stand on podiums like athletes.
We talk about Mihai’s first marriage, about his first
year in college in Craiova, waiting for Corina to
finish high school so they could leave together. We
talk about the divorce - Mihai thought it would be
the biggest loss of his life. But it wasn’t, he married
another high school colleague. His parents think she
was more interested in the things that Mihai loved motorcycles, mountain climbing and gastronomy.
ILLUSION
They were proud their son could earn thousands of
dollars a month and that he didn’t need anything.
They missed him in America, but Mihai came back
home often.
Once he surprised them. During a routine Skype
with his mother he told her that he heard the
doorbell, and that she should go and see who it was.
Sure enough, it was Mihai.
Virgil sometimes wakes up at night and thinks he’s
seeing his son through the window, but quickly
realizes it was nothing. On nights like those, the
doctor writes poetry.
Mihai Pătrașcu was a giving man. He didn’t try to
convince anyone he was right. He respected different
points of view, as intelligent people do.
His mother tells us that he had a beautiful voice that
made you listen. He made everything seem easy.
What about flaws? His writing was horrible, says
Professor Pătrașcu. He also stubbornly wanted to
climb mountains, even when he wasn’t prepared.
Seven Medals, three silver, four gold - Medals
won by Mihai Pătrașcu at International
Computer Science Olympiads. The medals
aren’t entirely made of gold. When Mihai
graduated, his high school had won 35
medals from international events.
Mihai didn’t take his medals with him to America. He
left them at home. He only took his guitar. The prizes
are still in Craiova, even the prestigious Presburger,
which he received posthumously.
The Presburger Award is a prize given by the
European Association for Theoretical Computer
Science to the best young researcher in the field.
Mihai became aware that he won the award in a
ceremony announcing the winners just before he
died.
35
The Pătrașcu’s remember their son kept asking
questions that young people shouldn’t be thinking.
Why do people die? Why aren’t mature people
able to discover something that will forever defeat
death? He would have liked to have worked on that.
Over time in the US, Mihai developed a strong
sense of patriotism. Mihai had a good friend, Alex
Andoni, from Chișinău. They made plans about how
they could save Romania and Bessarabia from the
burden we all bear. At one international Olympiad,
Mihai even wore traditional Romanian garb.
The Genius
Each year his parents present the “Mihai Pătrașcu’s
Excellence Award”. The prize is awarded to the
highest-ranking Olympiad winner from Romania
and has a value of 500 Euro. The first laureate
was Vlad Gavrilă, now a student at Cambridge.
Vlad Gavrilă is one of the two Romanians who
surpassed Mihai for the number of gold medals won
in international Computer Science Olympiads. Vlad
Gavrilă said that out of all the prizes he has won, the
Mihai Pătrașcu Excellence Award is the one he holds
most dear.
Mihai Pătrașcu was the leader of his national
Olympiad team. His mother recounts his victories:
10th grade, Borneo, gold; 11th grade, China, gold;
12th grade, Finland, gold...
His father shows us a piece of paper scribbled with
signs impossible to read. It’s the last paper his son
worked on. Mihai worked for a number of large
companies while in America. He was working with
AT&T when he died. While working for IBM in San
Francisco his mother recalled hearing the sounds of
ocean waves in the background while the skyped.
36
DIGNITY
Mihai Pătrașcu’s death was dignified. His biggest
worry was the peace of those around him. Many
of his work colleagues didn’t even know he was ill.
He kept writing articles, publishing, participating
in the conference circuit. The last time he went to a
conference was in Japan in 2012.
We kept looking through old photos from the family’s
personal archive. There’s Mihai at 10. There he is at
his marriage to Corina in 2002. There he is again in
2008, at his wedding with Mira in the mountains - at
a guest house in Ciunget. At the seaside, where he had
long hair. At Disneyland and wearing a traditional
shepherd costume bought in Sibiu (he brought it with
him all the way to America!).
We take these words with us, spoken by Virgil
Pătrașcu, who lost his son: “Maybe we had to pay for
all the joy Mihai brought us while we were together.
There is no word in Romanian that describes such a
human being.
Mariana and Virgil Pătrașcu
PressOne Quarterly | Volume 1
Virgil Pătrașcu remembers his son walking
aimlessly with his hands in his pockets. That’s how
he imagined him in New York City. No one would
have guessed he’s going through the limits of an
algorithm in his head.
“If I ever imagined something like this would happen to us, I’d have said that we wouldn’t
be able to bear it - to be someone who loses their child. Still, we are involved in all types of
activities, to make sure we are always busy. That’s how we are hanging on.” - Virgil Pătrașcu,
Mihai Pătrașcu’s father
PART IV: MIHAI AND MIKKEL
Mikkel Thorup was Mihai’s research fellow in the
US and a close friend. Mikkel has returned home to
Denmark and teaches a course in algorithms and
data structures in Copenhagen.
Aside from work, they told jokes, jogged, played
squash and drank beer. Mikkel said they wouldn’t
have succeeded if not for the beers and the squash.
They once worked on a problem for 18 months. The
social activities made the frustration of not finding a
solution more bearable.
Even in Mihai’s last months it was difficult for him
to accept the fact that his friend would die. They
still had fun together. Then Mihai lost function in
the left side of the brain, leaving his arm and his leg
paralyzed. That’s when they stopped joking.
His final memories of Mihai? The gratitude on his
face for Mira and Carmen’s care and the energy and
concentration that radiated from his eyes.
answering basic questions such as “What did you eat
for breakfast?” or “How did you get to school?”
Mihai Pătrașcu bombed the test. It was impossible
for him to concentrate and answer questions at the
same time. She told him, “Dude, you have won gold
at international Olympiads, you do so many things,
but you can’t do this?” Mihai laughed as well.
Years later, they met on the train station platform in
Bucharest on the way to Tulcea. She didn’t recognize
him. He had lost weight and now sported a thick
beard. “He looked more like a hippie than the geek
from high school”.
He had changed for the better. He had become
more sociable and adventurous. They had the same
passions and the same fearless spirit. They fell in
love and were soon married. Mira multi-tasked
the practical matters and Mihai remained the
consummate theorist.
PLANS
Mikkel refers me to one on Mihai’s papers recently
published by the Berkeley Simons Institute. It’s his
way of saying Mihai isn’t dead. His work continues to
inspire people on all continents. His work continues
to open new avenues.
After marriage, they lived in Boston, San Francisco
and finally in New York, where she felt most at ease.
In New York people are from everywhere and no
one feels like a stranger there. New York became
their home.
PART V: MIRA AND MIHAI
Mira and Mihai had plans: they were going to work
in the US for 10 years, save money, have children,
and then return to Bucharest when the kids were
old enough to start school. In America, performance
in education starts at the university level.
“Mihai made plans to return to Romania,
just as I made plans to go back to Denmark which I did. I’m sure he would have done the
same.” – Mikkel Thorup, Danish researcher
Mirabela Bodic, now a psychiatrist in New York,
went to high school with Mihai where they sat
across from each other in English and Math class.
Mihai hardly ever went to class. She remembers
thinking in 12th grade “Everybody is fascinated by
this man, how he is a genius and how special he is,
I would like to test him on his multi-tasking skills...”
Living so far away from Craiova brought out the
patriot in Mira as well. She had a Romanian flag
hanging by a nightlight in the living room. They
were encouraged by events in Romania. They saw
progress.
37
So she asked Mihai to follow her index finger as
she made a semi-circle around his head while he’s
She remembers Mihai lying on the couch, drawing
something in the air. She wondered what he was
doing. He said he was writing a formula, thinking of
an algorithm. She suggested he use paper. He said he
preferred to draw in the air because it was easier to
erase things.
The Genius
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Mira and Mihai
DEATH
They didn’t discuss death; they didn’t think of it.
Mira asks, rhetorically, “Who thinks about dying
when they’re 27?”
Actually, the subject came up once, when they were
climbing Kilimanjaro without adequate equipment.
He told her then, “If I die, at least I die doing
something I like!”
January 1st, 2011 came too soon. Mira was in her
second year of psychiatry residency in New York. It
was a Saturday.
Mihai had a splitting headache, and the doctor asked
him, “How much did you have to drink last night at
the party?”
Nothing. The doctor kept joking and thought his
patient couldn’t have anything more than a sinus
problem, until after the CT scan...
When he showed the scan to Mira, her world
collapsed. “I thought maybe I shouldn’t have been
a doctor, that way I wouldn’t have known what it
meant. Mihai’s father must have felt the same. There
wasn’t even a chance.”
The last year of Mihai’s life was marked by his
insistence that everyone live normally. He didn’t
spend more than ten days in the hospital, even with
all the operations and biopsies. Mihai Pătrașcu died
at home.
“Would he want to read this article?” We asked
Mira. She thinks so because Mihai had a big mouth
and would have given us juicier details. She says we
would have more clearly understood his integrity.
He was a man of strong convictions and had the
backbone to stand up for them.
THE MAXIM
Everyone who knew Mihai Pătrașcu
remembers he pushed the limits to the very
edge, as if life itself were an algorithm - and
that its limits needed to be challenged.
He wasn’t the kind of person who shone
light on his own success. He didn’t care what
people thought of him. Mihai Pătrașcu lived
as a free man.
Everywhere he lived in the States he was surrounded
by people. Mihai enjoyed inviting Romanians to live
with him. That was his treasure, his generosity, says
Mira. It was priceless, more than any treasure.
Mira feels lucky, although she’s a widow at 30. Mihai
was a passionate man, able to feel strong emotion
without digressing into the pathetic.
She doesn’t want us to write that he was perfect,
because he wasn’t. She wants us to write about the
simple truths of his life.
“I wouldn’t want to read about his academic
achievements again. It’s not that they don’t impress,
but for friends and family they were less important.
We didn’t love Mihai because of them. I’ve read
articles about extraordinary people who died at
young ages, in tragic circumstances, and they tend
to be exaggerated and ultimately deviate from the
positive.”
We won’t use that angle. We met Mihai Pătrașcu
through the collective memories of his friends and
family. We want to save him from oblivion. A Jewish
proverb says that by saving the memory of one man,
the entire world is saved.
39
WE ARE TAKING THE HIGH ROAD
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Photo: Voicu Bojan
www.pressone.ro
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Photo credit: EIA
Schweighofer Exposed: Behind the
investigation that moved Romania
CODRUTA SIMINA
“All political parties destroy our forests” or “Don’t fell that tree, you’ll have to deal with me!”
These were the chants heard at the beginning of
May 2015 as President Klaus Iohannis returned the
draft of a new Forest Code to Parliament.
Now a stunningly remarkable five-minute video was
going viral around the world and people were in the
streets across Romania.
43
Her little thing was not little at all. It was compelling
evidence beyond the force that has been destroying
Romania’s greatest treasure – our forests. Forests
and national parks that should be the economic
engine of a vibrant tourism industry – have been
turned into lunar landscapes, destroying wildlife,
fish and causing large scale flooding of homes.
Every political party leader since Communism has
looked the other way, suggesting high-level political
corruption in this national crime.
Photo: Vlad Stoicescu
The cries of indignation were ignited by contents
of a hidden camera documenting what millions
of Romanians knew, but until now, could never
prove: that Austrian wood company Schweighofer
knowingly purchases illegally harvested timber.
Among the street protesters was a remarkable
woman who kept telling herself, ‘No matter what
happens to me now, I have managed to do this little
thing. I hope it keeps going’.
Schweighofer Exposed
“Finally we provide the proof... and then the
Romsilva executives they take a sick leave”
Monica Lazurean Gorgan is a film producer. She is
included in the credits of feature films like “Best
Intentions” and “Domestic (2012)”, both directed
by Adrian Sitaru. That’s how the cinema world
knows her.
“In 2010 I was asked to produce three short
documentaries on environmental issues for the Soros
Foundation. I was allowed to choose my topics. Illegal
logging was my first topic because the environmental
crimes were so obvious and news articles were
coming out on this. I began doing some research
on my own, I made a short film for Soros. Then I
decided I wanted to take this topic further. To make
a serious, broader film, because I realized what was
going on in our forests”. This was the beginning of an
investigation that would grip thousands in 26 cities
across Romania.
Monica Lazurean Gorgan was lucky enough to receive
help from NGOs specializing in environmental
issues. She followed the story for several years, and
then she made a decision.
44 PressOne Quarterly | Volume 1
“I told myself - ok, if I make a documentary at the
national level, let’s say it’s really well put together,
well documented and so on... People in our country
will see it, but it will have very little international
exposure. In fact, it won’t have much of an impact
because there were already several very good stories
on TV by Alex Dima on Romania, I love you! and some
very good reporters from Antena.
You know how public pressure works in Romania.
Here’s the proof that this wood is being felled illegally.
And then the Romsilva executives take a sick leave,
they don’t show their faces for a week, until the
uproar boils over, and then everything goes back to
normal in that absurd Romanian way. So I told myself
I absolutely must put an international spin on this”.
Monica’s international strategy led her to Vienna the home of Schweighofer Holzindustrie.
“Given the dramatic situation in Romania, as well as
the fact that Austrian elements were involved... They
went for it. The Vienna Film Fund executive said, ’Yes,
I definitely want to support this project!’ I received
a development grant and began to work on the
project together with the Austrian producer,” Monica
Lazurean Gorgan recalls.
With a development grant in hand, Monica’s next
mission was to find an experienced investigative
partner. This led her to Alexander von Bismarck, the
great-great-grandson of Otto von Bismarck and the
Executive Director of EIA.
EIA is a Washington DC based organization
described on it’s website as “the most consistently
independent, fearless, dynamic and effective NGO
working on global environmental issues today.
EIA pioneered the use of investigative techniques,
including undercover documentary evidence,
to record and expose the world’s most pressing
environmental problems for the past 30 years”.
Von Bismarck specializes in illegal logging and
massive deforestation across the globe. EIA has
been active in Russia, but not in Romania. Not until
he met Monica Lazurean Gorgan.
HOW TO SELL ILLEGALLY
HARVESTED WOOD
Alexander von Bismarck - Sasha, to his friends - came
to Romania, and, after a few days’ research alongside
Monica, he decided to launch an investigation into
illegal logging here.
“When Sasha came to Romania, I told him, ‘Look,
Schweighofer incentivizes the illegal harvesting of
wood all over the country. They have outrageous
prices and they encourage the poor to cut down
everything they can get their hands on and bring it
to them. Schweighofer doesn’t cut trees. They just buy
the wood and then pretend, ‘I don’t know anything,
it’s none of my business who really cut it, where, or
how. My paperwork is in perfect order. That’s how
they cover their tracks. That’s the gist of it.”
In the United States, the EIA’s persistence and
investigations led to a 2008 amendment to the
Lacey Act that made it illegal for any US business to
purchase or sell any products made from illegally
harvested wood. It has been effective in reducing
demand for illegal wood.
Karl Schmidt, aqusition director, Holzindustrie Schweighofer Romania. Photo: youtube video
In Romania, you can buy wood or timber from illegal
sources and nothing will happen to you.
Alexander von Brunswick took his Romanian
challenge so seriously, that he grew a beard to
take on the character of an American businessman
offering large quantities of timber, legal and illegal.
The team bought hidden cameras and rehearsed
their roles in the sting. In the end, Sasha von
Bismarck came face to face with Schweighofer’s
Romanian representatives.
“They didn’t even do a background check on him. It
went pretty easily. Those guys weren’t suspicious,
they were very eager to buy wood quickly. We had
prepared some good back-up stuff for him. But
because Schweighofer has a very large market share
and a huge demand - over 40% of the wood they
process goes to Japan - they’re always in need of
wood. During our second meeting, we got lucky, as
we insisted a more senior manager come talk to us.
He turned out to be more relaxed and, basically, said
everything that appears in the video”.
Alexander von Bismarck’s investigation was made
public at the end of April, 2015.
On May 9, thousands of people took to the streets
across Romania to protest against illegal logging
and the complicity of the country’s political class
in ignoring this blatant scar on the face of Romania.
Most corruption is hidden, but illegal logging is a
plainly visible assault by Romanian political leaders
on the lifestyle and culture cherished by Romanians.
“It was a very special moment for me. It was all
happening very fast, I was both filming the protest
and trying to contact Sasha on Skype to show him
how many people he had spurred into action. But I
told myself, ‘no matter what happens to me now,
I have managed to do this little thing and I hope it
keeps going’. It makes you feel good and hope things
will go in the right direction and not be lost.
As far as I’m concerned, we took an important step,
several thousand people were in the streets. This
was a huge surprise for me; it made me very happy,”
Monica Lazurean Gorgan concludes.
One of the results of this investigation has been
that the new Forest Code now limits the quantity
of wood that can be processed by a single company
in Romania to 30% of the country’s overall capacity
per year.
45
Schweighofer Romania made it very clear they were
interested in buying illegal wood. They even offered
bonuses for additional quantities of illegal timber.
After two years of work, Monica had the video
evidence exposing Schweighofer’s criminal role is
destroying Europe’s largest and last natural forests.
AMENDING THE FOREST CODE
Schweighofer Exposed: Behind the investigation that moved Romania
Alexander “Sascha” von Bismarck. Photo: Raul Stef
Unofficial data showed Schweighofer was processing
half of the timber harvested in Romania each year.
“There had to be some constraints put in place
because they are now building a new factory and their
demand will grow. These constraints were included in
the Forest Code. It is such an important victory, but
we have to wait and see how it’s implemented. The
30%, this is the important victory.
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Schweighofer has declared they will attack the law
before the Competition Council because one cannot
impose such limitations on a tax-paying company.
But constraints are necessary because logging isn’t
just any industry, it’s our air. Plus, it pushes small
local companies out of business as they cannot afford
to buy at the price offered by Schweighofer.
They have a monopoly in the marketplace and this
monopoly needs to be broken up. Romania is no longer
a colony for foreigners where we sell cheap, they enjoy
maximum profits, and our kids are left with nothing”.
“WE’VE BEEN FOLLOWED”
Monica says such investigations aren’t as dangerous
in Romania as they are in Russia, where you cannot
film in the woods unless you have the forest rangers
with you.
“It can be dangerous in our country too, but I’m not the
fearful type. You don’t just go straight in and say, ‘hey,
what are you doing there, cutting down unmarked
trees?!’ You need some people in the area, informers,
and then you know how to go about it. We were
careful about this every time we went into the forest
and wanted to see a real case. We were making sure
that we knew what we were getting into. And I’m not
the fearful type. We had followed trucks for miles and
we had been followed ourselves... We were followed in
Bucharest, in Borsa. I can’t give you very many details
because we are still gathering documentary evidence
and working on this,” says the producer.
The new documentary that Monica is working on
will be presented internationally as it includes other
countries, as well as Romania.
However, it is possible that the part about Romania
will be shown in the country next year to raise greater
awareness for this issue. That is Monica’s wish.
Monica Lazurean Gorgan. Photo: Personal archive
“ASSISTANCE” FROM PUBLIC
AUTHORITIES
Institutional transparency in Romania remains,
in most cases, a myth. Public authorities apply
Law no. 544/2001 regarding free access to public
information in a discretionary fashion.
“It is clear that public institutions stand in
the way. Nobody takes any responsibility
for anything. We don’t know, submit a
written request, register a complaint, and
we will contact you with a solution. And
the request always gets buried there. Some
people, including within Romsilva, side with
the large actors in the market. I couldn’t
believe it. ‘Let the Competition Council
decide, we know nothing.’ ‘How can that be?
You are Romsilva...’ Schweighofer buys from
Romsilva at very low prices. I mean, public
institutions are nowhere to be found,”
concludes Monica.
Regardless of the obstacles, important steps were
taken with the help of civil society. Some politicians
have leaned in on this, but always with an ulterior
motive.”
EPILOGUE
On October 21, at a press conference held in Vienna,
the EIA and other environmental organizations have
made public a report on illegal logging in Romania.
The EIA said it has records of Schweighofer offering
to buy illegally harvested wood from Romania.
47
48
Map used with permission from EIA. Report address: https://eia-global.org/subinitiatives/romania
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Clotilde Armand. Photo: Lucian Muntean
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Clotilde Armand: “I’ve given it
my all for Romania”
IULIA MARIN
A charismatic Frenchwoman is
leading the movement changing the
way Romanians look at politics and
government
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Clotilde Armand: “I’ve given it my all for Romania”
Clotilde Armand, a Frenchwoman, is running for the
Bucharest Sector 1 Mayor in June’s local elections.
Her bid comes in on behalf of the Bucharest Salvation
Union (USB), the party led by mathematician turned
activist Nicusor Dan, who himself is running for
Bucharest’s top job.
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We met Clotilde on the 29th of March, a Tuesday, on
the shores of Straulesti Lake where she announced
her candidacy.
Several hours later she granted us an interview
where she told us, amongst other things, how she
married Sergiu Moroianu, a mathematics PhD
graduate and researcher at MIT, about her career on
two continents, and her first vacation in Romania,
in 1996, when she fell in love with the Fagaras
Mountains.
ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE LAKESHORE
March 29th, 10.30 am. We’re somewhere in
Bucharest’s Sector 1 on the shore of Lake Straulesti.
The area is heavily littered and the smell of stagnant
water hangs in the air. A few meters from a blue
table, on which a few flyers are arranged, a small
girl and a dog run around the yard of a dilapidated
house.
A gipsy, short in stature, with her hair in a ponytail
is looking curiously at the video cameras lined up in
the grass in front of the table.
Nicusor Dan is speaking with a tall, slender woman,
who has a healthy laugh and an accent that’s
impossible to ignore. Several reporters look on,
confused.
Next to the folding chairs set-up for the press
conference, two wicker baskets covered with white
linen napkins offer the promise of macaroons – the
well-known, multicolored French cakes.
It feels like a picnic where everyone is too somber
and the unpleasant smell emanating from the lake is
unlikely to help anybody’s appetite.
The tall woman is Clotilde Armand – the USB
mayoral candidate Sector 1 – whom the press has
christened ‘the Frenchwoman’.
She begins to speak, her hands clutching the papers
on which she’s prepared her remarks.
She talks about meeting Nicusor Dan through her
brother-in-law, Andrei Moroianu, whom she’d met at
Mathematics competitions. Then she speaks about
her four children, who attend school in Romania,
and about her parents who live in the Vichy region
of France. They are simple people: her father is an
engineer and her mother a homemaker.
Her accent is rather discernible, especially when
she pronounces ‘n’, nasally, or the guttural ‘rrr’. She
stumbles over a sentence and bursts out laughing,
like a schoolgirl. She nudges Nicusor Dan with her
elbow. The USB president, more versed with the
Romanian press, remains composed and somewhat
tense. Clotilde Armand continues, unabashed.
Some of the reporters are visibly amused when the
Pekingese dog from the nearby house works its way
through Clotilde’s legs. The moment dispels any
trace of solemnity.
Towards the end of the press conference, the gipsy
intervenes. She asks Clotilde Armand for a house
to raise her kids. The Candidate tells her that she’ll
accompany her to city hall. Some young men on
Nicusor Dan’s team ask the woman for her telephone
number.
The Frenchwoman then thanks the attendees
for their presence and invites them to join her
in cleaning the litter along the banks of the lake.
Reporters signal to each other it’s time to pack up
and go.
CLOTILDE’S STORY
After the makeshift conference, we meet with
Clotilde Armand, indoors, to speak about her
background, her career, the move to Romania, and
now, her move into Romanian politics.
Who is Clotilde Armand?
If I hadn’t met my husband in the U.S., I would’ve
been a Frenchwoman like any other. I’m an engineer
by profession. I studied at the Massachusets Institute
of Technology (MIT), where I met many students
from all over Europe. The Europeans were a natural
community, sandwiched between the Americans
and Asians; we Europeans had a sense of belonging
to the same place.
Photo: Lucian Muntean
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Clotilde Armand: “I’ve given it my all for Romania”
I met my husband, who is Romanian, when I was
22. After he finished his studies we decided to
move to Romania. He is a mathematics researcher
(Sergiu Moroianu is a researcher at the Institute of
Mathematics of the Romanian Academy – Ed.). His
salary when we moved back to Romania in1996 was
equivalent to $50 a month!
I managed to build a business career where I spent
half my time in Romania and the other half abroad.
Eventually we decided to remain here for good.
Why not the United States or France?
Not in the US, I’m not someone who can migrate
just like that; I feel we all have strong ties to our
homeland. We have responsibilities and duties, and,
whether it’s France or Romania, I could fulfill these,
in the sense that we have a certain quality of life in
either country.
In the US, no way, in France, yes, we have thought
about it. My husband, however, is very attached to
his country. I’ve also grown attached to Romania
and think it’s a good country in which to educate
children.
It’s also a country where the people are
noble-minded. It’s something I like very
much. There’s a lot to do here, you can
get involved. Romania now feels like my
permanent home.
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When did you get your citizenship?
I got it at the end of last year and I’ve had my national
ID card since February. I used it yesterday for the
first time, coming back from Bulgaria, and everyone
was looking at me quite suspiciously. (she laughs)
How did you meet Nicusor Dan?
My husband has known Nicusor Dan for 25 years.
I’ve known him for 20. Like my husband, he’s a
mathematician. He’s from the same generation as
my brother-in-law (Andrei Moroianu is a director
of research at Centre national de la recherche
scientifique in Paris, and a former gold medalist at
international mathematics Olympiads)
He and my husband started the Scoala Normala
Superioara, inspired by the École Normale Supérieure
in Paris. The goal is to offer elite-level education in
mathematics, physics, computer science – several
disciplines – in Romania – in Bucharest – so that
students stay in the country two or three years after
completing their baccalaureate.
The whole idea is to keep students here a few years
before they leave the country, since they now have
access to first-class education. Spending a few years
here, before leaving, can change everything. They
are more likely to return, even if they do leave, if
they start their post-graduate studies here.
We built this school together, with Nicusor, and
we’ve also worked on other projects. Very recently
my husband and I talked about other ways I could be
involved. So we’ve decided on this course of action
together.
Do you think the citizens of Bucharest are ready
to vote for a women? A foreign one at that?
I may be from another country, but I’m now a
Romanian citizen. So yes, I think so. It’s about the
trust they give me as a person, not as a foreigner or
as a woman.
I have too much to lose, including a reputation, even
in the eyes my family, to get involved in anything
undignified.
Tell us about your experience at Distrigaz.
(Former state-run natural gas distributor in
Southern Romania)
I started in January 2005 and the company was
privatized 5 months later in May. We were a small
French team who’d come in to bring Distrigaz into
private ownership and reorganize the company.
I had a few months to understand what was going
on because the privatization process had been
delayed. During this time I studied their processes
and the way people were working. The moment we
had signing authority, we knew what to change to
make operations more efficient. We also made sure
the rules were being followed. If something wasn’t
working out we’d investigate in order to understand
where the problem came from.
At the beginning, we basically said: “Okay,
the past is the past. Now there are rules that
have to be observed. The first rule is ethics.
You need to do a reading on a gas meter
and the customer has to pay. If there’s any
fraudulent activity and the customer isn’t
paying, we need to know about it and stop
it. Also, a customer has the right to get
their gas – any customer – without paying
anything on top of their regular fee.“
There might be a couple of bad apples, operating
on their own, but nothing systematic from top to
bottom, the way it used to be.
There were a few who didn’t want to accept these
new rules. It was easy to understand why – it was
advantageous for them not to follow the program
– so I had to fight every step of the way, even with
the help of the DNA (Anti-corruption Directorate).
A DNA investigator helped us set up stings to
catch the people taking bribes…and this had an
effect on everyone else. But some were not able to
understand that the old jig was up until they were
arrested. That’s how we put an end to the way things
used to be.
I have helped foreign investors get their bearing in
the Romanian landscape. It’s a different legal and
cultural context. These companies were looking
for managers who understood the local as well as
the corporate culture. I was the manager of the
consulting department at KPMG, then I worked
at GDF Suez, and I’ve been with Egis Romania
since 2013. Egis is an engineering company with
infrastructure, environmental, road, and airport
projects. I’m the country manager for Romania,
Bulgaria, and Moldova.
I worked in consulting for KPMG in 1999. I was there
for over two years helping multinational companies
get set up in Romania. I was also involved with
Michelin when they came to Romania to take over
operations from Tofan.
Photo: Lucian Muntean
55
We made sure to take it all the way and today the
ethics issues at Distrigaz are nearly all resolved.
Did you work for other companies in Romania?
Clotilde Armand: “I’ve given it my all for Romania”
You are ready to give up your manager’s salary
for a mayor’s stipend?
I’ve been fortunate to work on large projects, with
very large budgets and thousands of people. So yes,
I am ready to give up a very good salary for a smaller
one.
I want to be clear about it, so I’ll spell it out. I’ve
been working for 19 years and I’ve always made a
good living. I’m not the kind of person who needs a
luxurious lifestyle. I’ve put money away whenever
I could, so today I’m quite well off. Because I’ve
worked in different countries and didn’t contribute
to retirement plans in any one place, my husband
and I have always been conscious of the fact that we
need to save for the future.
When I’m 60 there won’t be any place to which I’ve
contributed for 40 years. I’ve worked in America,
Romania, France, and Germany. So we have planned
our savings. I can manage four or more years on a
much smaller salary than I’m used to.
Why did you accept to run for the Sector 1 job at
City Hall?
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I’ve been volunteering for many years, since I was
very young, in France. I see it as a duty. It is also
a privilege. It has shaped me into the person I am
today. I try to impart this culture of volunteering to
my kids.
You receive, but you have to give back. In France,
there would’ve been no Nicușor Dan, so nobody
would’ve asked me to get involved. Or maybe there
would’ve been. I don’t know. I’ll admit that I’m
answering a call here though, a worthy one. And I’m
the kind of person who can do what needs to get
done.
Have you gone around Sector 1 to talk to people?
Yes, I went to Chitila Triaj. It was a bit of a shock.
It’s actually somewhat pretty. Trees in bloom,
cute houses, but the roads are not paved, there is
no running water, and no connection to the city’s
sewage. They’ve got electricity though! (she laughs).
It’s an issue.
When I got there, everyone came out of their homes
to see what we were doing. They told us all the
previous mayors made promises that they never
fulfilled. They are now so disappointed they’re
thinking of boycotting the vote. It’s a shame. They
need to find a candidate whom they trust, instead
of giving up.
Have you met your PSD and PNL counterparts?
No, I haven’t met them. But you know what they
say? PNL, PDL, PSD – all the big parties can mobilize
150,000 people in Bucharest. They’ve all got that
kind of mass appeal. They’re in every government
institution, every city hall, and they make a lot
of people feel needed. In fact, those people are
getting duped. They have a dead-end job, no growth
opportunities, nothing, and they’re getting swindled
ten times as much as is given to them.
Every vote in Sector 1 is worth 3,000 euros per
voter. They give back nothing in exchange for those
3,000 euros.
How did you get that number?
I divided the yearly budget by the number of voters.
You’ve picked a very interesting place to launch
your candidacy...
I don’t think the citizens of Bucharest realize what
kind of opportunity we have with these lakes.
They’ve been abandoned, rejected, and polluted. But
they’re unique in Europe. It’s as if you’ve got a gold
mine and you’re ignoring it.
If you look at Sector 1 on the map, you’ll notice that
these lakes cross it from end to end. It’s amazing.
And yet, the only lake people know in Bucharest is
Herastrau Lake.
Even if I don’t get the job, my goal is to raise
awareness, bit by bit, so that the citizens of Bucharest
start to reclaim these lakes. I bet you didn’t know
about this treasure trove in the middle of town. It
smells foul and it’s polluted now, it’ a shame.
All the new buildings going up are dumping their
waste in these lakes. I don’t even know what else I
could call it, but it seems to me it’s basically a crime
to let this go on. Bucharest has an extraordinary
asset that no city in Europe has. And we’re just
standing by dumping waste in it.
How long did it take you to learn Romanian? Do
you speak it at home?
We speak French at home. Why? The kids are
learning Romanian at school, their friends are all
Romanians, and so they only get to speak French
with me. If they didn’t speak to me they wouldn’t
speak French.
I’ve given it my all for Romania, but I want my kids
to speak my native language! (she laughs) It would
be strange for them to have a French mother and not
to speak French.
When we decided to stay here, I realized I had to
focus on learning Romanian. I already spoke a bit,
but not very well. Even now it’s not quite perfect,
but I can write error free. As for speaking, you’ve
already noticed that you need to be patient with
me. It’s not easy to learn a new language at 42! (she
laughs)
Did you take classes or just learn it on the fly?
On the fly and through people’s feedback. I try to
change my sentence structure…it’s quite difficult.
I stayed in Bucharest very briefly and then, on the
second day, took the overnight train to the Fagaras
Mountains. It was, just…wow! I was very impressed.
It was gorgeous. We crossed the Fagaras Mountains
in one week and I was left with the impression that
Romania was the most beautiful country in the
world.
When did you get your first taste of culture
shock?
This obviously happens everywhere, even when I
moved from France to the US. I was volunteering
in the US and I wanted to explain French culture
to a group of African-American school kids. They
couldn’t quite grasp what France was, what Paris is
about.
When I moved to Romania in 1999, everything
was disorganized. It was exhausting to accomplish
anything at all.
But the people here in Romania are very
authentic. You can talk to any one person
and feel like you’ve made a real connection.
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When did you come to Romania for the first
time?
It was the summer of 1996, exactly twenty years ago.
I wasn’t married at the time but I was thinking that
if I do marry a Romanian, I’ll have to see his country.
The Road to a Stone House
CODRUTA SIMINA
We went looking for the La Origini museum that was creating
a buzz on Indiegogo and found a different kind of inspiration.
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Photography: Raul Stef
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The Road to a Stone House
A white, linen handkerchief on the muddy road.
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To reach La Origini in the village of Tecsesti, located
in the Apuseni Mountains of Alba County, you need
to take a right at the house with carved eagles on
the gate. Then a rutted forest road opens up and you
can drive for as long as fate will allow. We drove for
a few kilometers and then chose to walk the rest.
Actually our car’s limited ground clearance made
the decision for us.
We walked for forty minutes before encountering
our first human. He told us we had another two
hours of walking to Tecsesti, if we were brisk.
thinned out on the side of a cliff. Not a soul in sight.
It’s a feeling that can feed the fear of abandonment,
especially for those of us accustomed to the big city
and technology.
We finally saw a human-looking silhouette on a
hilltop. We wiggled through a crack in the fence
and climbed the hill. The wind swooshed in grave
accords.
After another ninety minutes we come upon an
ancient, white Dacia 1300 parked in a bend. We said
to each other, “This is it, we’ve reached civilization!”
From the Dacia of Hope it was another twenty
minutes until we reached the first house.
The first house was locked up. The second was
deserted. The third, surrounded by a tall fence,
didn’t respond to our friendly, inquisitive hollering.
We kept walking into a brutal wind as the road
Apparently they DO leave a car on the road like that.
Ion and Elisabeta Tacsa
We closed in on the summit as two giant shepherd
dogs and a small pup approached. They were
straight out of a children’s book with their pretzel
tails. The pup barked the loudest.
in her parents’ ancestral home and make do on a
pension of 130 euros a month.
“No, dear, this is Raicani. Tecsesti is farther down,”
she gestured wildly towards a massive boulder,
“past the rock. But what do you want to do there?
Come by our place...”
They never owned a TV and the news rarely travels
this far. I asked them if they knew who was President,
and Elisabeta replied with another question. “A man
by the name of... Janus?”
Three hours into our countryside stroll, we crested
the top of the hill and ran into an old granny and
asked, “Is this Tecsesti?”
And we went with her.
Elisabeta and Ion are part of a Romania we hardly
think about and rarely reach. It’s as if the people of
Raicani wanted to be history-proof.
No one has ever visited from the Mayor’s office.
Their pension is delivered by their nephew, who
travels from another village.
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Ion and Elisabeta Tacsa (photo) were born in the
same village. They’ve known each other since
childhood. After 58 years of marriage they still live
Prime Ministers aren’t even worth mentioning.
“They always change, I can’t remember ‘em.”
Photography: Raul Stef
If there’s an angel that keeps an eye over journalists
in search of a scoop, we’d have to thank him for
guiding us to the most beautiful of stories, as simple
as it is.
Elisabeta is in her 74th year of life and Ion is ten
years her senior. That’s how people married in the
old days. The bride was a girl who already knew her
way around the house and the groom was someone
who could make ends meet.
The Road to a Stone House
“We have a postman, but she’s a woman, and the poor
thing can’t make it up here.”
Elisabeta is well guarded by two white shepherd
dogs with little strings tied into knots for collars.
Who, as all country dogs, “won’t hurt you.” When
she heard how loudly they were barking on our
approach she thought we might be wolves. She came
out and saved us.
Ion and Elisabeta have seven other families as
neighbors, spread around the nearby hills where
wild boars eat apples and plums during the
summertime. During winter, a great freeze blocks
any access to the city for months.
Using two walking sticks, Elisabeta shows us tracks
in the muddy road.
“Look, you know what these are? Wild boars. They
passed through last night, maybe even today.”
Boars don’t bother people during winter, but when
summer comes around they wreak havoc.
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“They come for fruit at night, eat the ripe ones on the
ground, climb the trees, and steal everything they can
reach with their hooves,” the woman tells us.
Elisabeta married early. At 16 she was mother to a
girl, and three years later, a boy.
In his youth, her husband worked at the train station
in Cugir. The 600 lei pension, on which they manage
month after month is in his name.
Money’s split between the electricity bill – the only
public utility that reaches this place – flour for
bread, and whatever’s needed around the house: oil,
sugar, rice, semolina.
“What about medication?” we ask.
“Meds are expensive. We’re lucky that we
don’t buy ‘em,” Elisabeta responds ironically.
They don’t take any medication at all. Not
a single pill. I had a cough for two weeks
last winter. My daughter bought me meds
– I can show you, I put them in the closet, I
didn’t take ‘em,” she adds.
While she tells us all of this, she fiddles inside a
winter kitchen, small and warm. On the windowsill,
there’s an alarm clock, prayer books and salt. There
are clean sheets hung out to dry in the yard. You can
hear the wind and a particularly boisterous cockerel.
Their two children produced nine grandchildren.
They’re spread out all over the world and have in
turn begotten… she doesn’t recall how many greatgrandkids. They come to visit during the summer.
“They bring the young ones,” Ion says. His palms are
as wide as shovels as he wipes his brow with them.
He’s funny and likable. She says it’s because he’s had
an easy job - not like the young people today who
leave their country.
“What kind of life is it, when you can’t find a
job in your own country?”
The Tacsas also have two bulls, a few cows, and
a chicken coop. The pig passed away around
Christmas, in a very traditional manner.
“Ha, fun! It’s not something we look for anymore. Back
when we were young, we’d go dancing in Tecsesti…
scraped by all the branches in the forest on our rush to
the party....” Both their eyes are smiling, gazing once
again upon their youth.
“Now kids, I should really give you something to eat.
Come, I think it’s only right, I rarely have guests.” She
dives into the pantry and comes out with an apron
full of fresh eggs.
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Elisabeta also reveals the secret to a lasting
marriage: no cursing between man and woman. Of
course they can argue, like all families do, but no
cursing.
“What do you do for fun?”
Photography: Raul Stef
With very little socializing to do, the couple focus
on housework: laying out the hay, caring for the
orchard and gardening during summer. They have
potatoes, carrots, onions and lettuce patches. Wheat
and corn aren’t worth it now that the people have
left and boars roam free.
Winter’s calmer. Ion gets out of bed at 5 AM and
feeds the animals. He comes back inside and reads
the Bible or sleeps.
The Road to a Stone House
Plates dress the table. They’re made of cream
porcelain, the kind I’ve only seen in my grandparents’
house on the mountainside. She also brings out
cutlery with bone and wood handles.
Before we eat, our host gives thanks and says the
Lord’s Prayer.
If you’re into a healthy lifestyle and think the organic,
free-range eggs in the city are the real thing – then
come to Elisabeta’s in Raicani.
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She explains things while we gobble the eggs sunnyside-up along with home-baked bread. “Out here,
hens eat everything; worms, beetles, even the grass
is good. Fat, meat, and vitamins, that’s how a good
egg is made, from carnivorous hens.”
Only eight homesteads are still occupied in Raicani.
Neighbors see each other at Sunday mass, or when
they need to borrow a bit of sugar, cooking oil, or
whatever’s missing before the next trip down the hill.
As for death, it’s in God’s hands – who is more
present in the life of the villagers than any celebrity.
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Marion, born Mariuca
ROXANA GARAIMAN
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An orphan of the Decree, Monica Le Roy Dagen,
returns home to find her parents
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Marion, born Mariuca
Marion’s biological mother (captured in the documentary “L’enfant du diable”)
“When my son, Pierre, was born I wondered
whether I should tell my biological mother.
But I felt like I couldn’t allow her to call
herself his grandmother. I didn’t want
Pierre to be hers, too.”
Thus speaks Marion Le Roy Dagen, aged 40. Until
the age of 6 her name was Mariuca.
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Adopted by a French couple from one of Romania’s
communist-era orphanages, Marion knew nothing
about her roots until she turned 24.
In 2000, she visited Romania to find the man and
woman who abandoned her as an infant. In 2014,
Marion produced a documentary about her life
entitled, “L’enfant du diable” (The Devil’s Child).
THIS IS A STORY OF DELIVERANCE.
Mariuca-Marion is the fruit of fleeting love. She was
born in Aiud, on the 17th of July in 1976, ten years
after Decree 770/1966, the law that made abortion
illegal in Romania.
Her mother was 17 and on her summer vacation
when she brought Marion into the world. Still a
student in high school, she gave up Mariuca when
classes started in September.
“The principal told me I could do what I
wanted with the baby, but because I was ill
and a minor, they’d take her away from me
anyway so I’d be better off by putting her up
for adoption. I had two days to decide”, Ana,
Marion’s biological mother, recalls.
She made the decision without the father’s input,
a 22 year old who she’d met while visiting her
grandparents.
“Nicolae played football at the time. We hit it off
and met two or three time in Teius – that’s where
he lived.”
Nicolae would discover that he had a child...
twenty-four years later.
DECREE NR. 770, ENACTED ON
OCTOBER 2ND 1966, FORBADE
ABORTIONS, WITH THE FOLLOWING
EXCEPTIONS:
The pregnancy posed a risk to the mother’s health
and could not be mitigated through other means;
One of the parents suffered a debilitating and
hereditary disease, or any disease that could lead to
genetic malformations;
The mother suffered from serious physical or
psychological afflictions;
The mother is over 45 years of age;
The mother has already given birth to four children
who are still under her care;
The pregnancy is the result of a sexual assault or an
incestuous act.
This was how Mariuca found herself living in an
orphanage for the first six years of her life.
“The beds were all crowded together and
surrounded by grating. There was no
privacy of any sort. I spent six years that
I’ll never get back in that place. I remember
kids screaming. It was unbearable.”
The Ceausescu regime was unable to cope with the
growing number of institutionalized children. The
effects of the 1966 decree were made apparent
within the first year when more than five hundred
thousand kids were born; double the number
from the previous year. The number of abandoned
children kept pace with the surging birthrate.
The communist regime stopped training psychologists
and social workers. Most orphanage staff didn’t
have the relevant training or education. Romanian
society began to adopt an abandonment culture,
visible even at the cinema. A very popular film at
the time, Veronica (1972), painted an idyllic life at
an orphanage.
“Doctors would casually recommend that
mothers institutionalize their children if they
had any trouble with the child at home. It
was just as common for a mother to claim
poverty in order to leave her child at the
hospital. The motto, ‘the state wants ‘em, the
state can keep ‘em’ was rooted in the public
conscience,” say the authors of an extensive
report on orphaned children in Romania.
The state profited off of orphans like they were a
commodity. Thirty thousand children were adopted
by foreigners, who paid considerable sums to take
them out of the country. The adoption papers were
signed by Ceausescu himself. It was very methodical.
In 1980 a French couple visited the Alba Iulia
orphanage looking to adopt. Mariuca was 4 years
old. When she saw the couple for the first time, she
yelled out in desperation, “They’re mine!”
She thinks she was eventually chosen because she
was one of the few kids who didn’t suffer from mental
afflictions. The adoption process, however, was not
an easy one. She finally escaped the orphanage in
1982, when she was 6.
“I felt so free the moment I landed in France.
I wanted to forget Romania so badly that I
decided to fully embrace my new life. Even
though these terrible memories never left me,
I completely forgot the Romanian language.”
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As the tragedy unfolded, Ceausescu ordered the
construction of mega-orphanages. In 1989 these
had reached a total capacity of around 100,000 beds.
The orphanages were filled beyond capacity. For
example, one of the largest orphanages, the Târgu
Ocna orphanage in Bacau County, had a capacity of
600, but it was home to 1,100 boys.
“I lived my life in a vacuum where absolutely
nothing happened. Nobody cared for us,
and we couldn’t even go outside. We spent
most of the day in bed, dirty and soaked in
urine. The girl next to me was disturbed
and repeatedly slammed her head against
the wall. The staff didn’t even look at us,”
Marion remembers.
Marion, born Mariuca
MARIUCA BECAME MARION
From that point on, her fate and those of the other
orphans with whom she’d grown up, would take vastly
different directions. Most of them had never known
any sort of motherly affection, and few managed to go
on and live normal lives. Many have died.
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But Marion couldn’t feel whole as long as she
didn’t know the truth about the circumstances
surrounding her early childhood. In 2000, at the age
of 24, she traveled to Romania to find her roots. She
remembers arriving in Aiud and asking strangers in
a local pub for help finding the woman who was her
mother. She was sent to an older man who was able
to tell right away she was Romanian. She explained
whom she was looking for and he immediately said,
“Ana!” Marion’s adoptive parents had been told that
her mother had died, but the man said, “Nonsense! I
saw her at the market last week.”
Mariuca, age 4. This photograph was taken by her
adopted mother at the orphanage in Alba Iulia.
The man then took her to Ana’s house and
asked her to wait outside. “I waited about
fifteen minutes but it felt like a lifetime. I
was pacing all over, biting my nails.”
Marion’s first photo with her adopted parents.
(Captured in the documentary “L’enfant du diable”)
When Ana came out of the house, Marion asked her
about her daughter. Ana said she’d given her up as
a baby and that she was later told she’d died. She
was named Mariuca and she was born in July, 1976.
That’s when Marion knew the woman who stood in
front of her was her mother. At first Ana told Marion
that her father was not a good man, and then later
she said he had died. Only in 2014, while filming the
documentary, did Ana admit that he was alive and
gave Marion his address.
The moment Marion met her birth mother
(video capture).
“With my mother things had been
complicated, it took fifteen years to
understand her story, but with Nicolae it
was very spontaneous. He takes things as
they are.”
Nicolae, who has two children, only found out about
Marion in 2000. He didn’t tell his family about her
right away, but figured that someday his French
daughter would come to seek him out. Marion says
she feels a stronger attachment to her biological
father even if the relationship with her mother goes
further back.
Marion alongside her biological father, Nicolae
(captured in the documentary “L’enfant du diable”).
In 2014, Marion felt ready to introduce her biological
parents to her son, Pierre, who was a year old.
emotional scars because of it. I started an
organization named ‘Romanian Orphans’
with the intention of easing the adoption
process, to give them an opportunity to
form their own identity.”
“I was extremely lucky to be adopted by
this extraordinary French family, but my
soul never left this place. I’ve met many
kids over the years who were brought up in
these orphanages and they retained lifelong
The documentary is dedicated to these kids.
In France, Marion is a social worker. She says she
still carries a strong sense of guilt about the children
left behind in the orphanage.
“For me, Ceausescu was the devil incarnate.
Even now I sometimes think of myself as the
devil’s child.”
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Bucharest then and now
LUCIAN MUNTEAN
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A PressOne photographer imagines interbellum Bucharest
from the streets of today.
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