Entropa

To my own delight, I finally got to visit David Cerny's Entropa which was on display at DOX Prague for almost a year now after it had finished shocking the Europeans in Brussels.

This David Cerny is one hell of an artist, he sure knows how to provoke and take the piss out of stiff issues in our world. I love his work because it's thought provoking and is not gratuitous - that is, there's always more than meets the eye and some meanings reveal themselves after a bit of thinking.

Of course, not all of his stuff may be emanating meanings and symbols but it's most always fun.

Have a look at the official booklet for some interpretations of the pieces, and think of some personal ones :)

Malta

Italy - football players getting off with they balls

Bulgaria - this has caused the greates rage, however there's more to its meaning. I've learned about the chilly relations between turks living in bulgaria and etnic bulgarians so this brings a whole new meaning to the depiction turkish squats.

France

Finland

Germany

Greece

Slovakia

Czech Republic

Slovenia

Holland

Latvia

Romania - we got away quite easy on this one!

Luxembourg

The big picture

p2p microfinancing

I've been spending almost 2 hours reading about online "p2p" microfinancing and how it can positively impact the ones less fortunate than us.

Reading my way through the footnotes on the wikipedia article about kiva i delved a bit deeper into the whole charity versus loan issue and about the psychological effects of real cases on one's willingness to participate.

One of them caught my eye especially and I think it leads to some intriguing ethical questions.

My opinion is that if the whole effort is honest and has good, measurable results, the means are justifiable for the greater good it produces.

I encourage you to have a look and judge for yourselves.

This is my 100th post btw, yaaay! Good reason to resurrect my blog a bit!

Czech your wallet

 

This little 'innocent' price list has been in Karlstejn for at least 3 years because I remember it from the time i first visited the place...

I'm surprised that nobody pointed out the ridiculousness of having the price written in letters!! for people who understand czech (therefore more or less locals). They probably did this in order not to make the 'foreign tourist price' seem like a rip off.

Well, guess what, it makes it look as twice as much the rip off, having that embarassing price list hung up there...

Oh and, btw, I took the czech version of the tour (i think they give out some english leaflets actually) and it wasn't much, almost not worth the STOPADESAT KORUN... sheesh!!!

George Orwell's cup of tea

Prague is a very cultural city: there is always something happening in any immaginable art field. However in some of them there's the language barrier which is totally understandable obviously. My basic Czech skills aren't of much use when attempting to see a play for instance.
There are fortunately some very good workarounds: I discovered here the non verbal theatre which can be fascinating really as I've already seen two such shows - it emphasises how speech is merely one of the many forms of communication, many times not necessarily the best one.

The second workaround is actually proper theatre in English. Thanks to the large expat community in Prague and to the people who care about their theatrical cravings, there is the Fringe festival every year for 8 or 9 years now.

And since i have a weakness for theatre I fully profited from this veritable 'theatre season' and saw 7 performances, some better than others. If you read till here you might be wondering about the title - well here it is: I saw a really good performance of George Orwell tonight, he was telling the audience stories from his life 'through' a really good actor who spoke at an alarming pace which really kept me attentive for the full hour and a half.

Apart from reading 1984 which is a chilling experience and an mind opener in respect to world politics I didn't really know much about him. Turns out he was a very interesting character, an idealist escaping from life's unfairness in his work. A thing he failed to mention in tonight's performance however - quite unforgivable for an Englishman trying to set the world on the proper course - was how to make proper tea!

Fiti darnici

O initiativa foarte faina in lumea virtuala romaneasca care mertia toate laudele si care sper sa va inspire!

Carevasazica, http://www.oamenidarnici.ro/

About responsibility in a much more immediate way

It so happens nowadays that when people talk about responsibility it refers to more general concepts: finishing your studies, being good at your work, living healthy and so on.

The lack of responsibility however hits unexpectedly many times in the most brutal ways when people ignore its most basic purpose: to avoid any harm to others or yourself, not to behave recklessly.

That kind of life threatening behavior is far more common in our modern ultra developed world that should ironically make our life safer and easier. I bet people die in car accidents more than from some common diseases. It doesn't really stand out until it confronts someone you know or some friend of theirs.

I knew there are way too many reckless drivers in Romania and that it's turning into a big problem and I've recently learned about a friend's colleague who's been in an accident and has good chances of recovery in a clinic in Germany.

What's even more revolting is that her treatment wasn't paid for by the insurance since it could have been handled in Romania as well (but of course with much less efficiency because of the technological differences) so she must rely on your help to pay the expensive recovery treatment that would give her the best chances.

If you are able, please donate (paypal should be available soon, try to get in touch with the family/friends via the blog)

Foreigners = strangers?

It's funny how in both Czech and Romanian, the word foreigner also means stranger. It might have to do with a common pre-judgement that whoever comes from a different country is not awarded the same neutrality that the americans give for instance (their whole nation is based on 'foreigners') but they're rather treaded with a certain degree of suspicion.

What's the connection with the gracious ice skater in the poster? Well, the show has a foreign name, traditionally Czechs don't really appreciate things that can't/won't be translated because the Czech language is rather conservative, although among the young there's a similar english-ifying frenzy as is with romanian 'corporatists'.

However, one should not judge harshly a bewildered and outraged inhabitant of Sidliste Dablice, a panelak neighborhood at the outskirts of Prague, who, eager to manifest his dissaproval of spoiling the list of cultural events in Prague displayed in the bus stop with this uninteligible event, wrote a warm 'up yours, foreigners !!' in a meticulous marker caligraphy. Notice the double underline!

Mergi la vot!

Daca speri ca votul tau valid, laolalta cu cel al altor milioane de concetateni sa faca diferenta, sa aduca o guvernare sanatoasa, matura si constienta de actiunile sale, un fel de democratie ajunsa la majorat care n-o sa mai injure, sa se imbete ca o scroafa, amestecand legile, sau sa fure bani din casa, fie si de frica pasibilitatii de pedeapsa, atunci inseamna ca trebuie sa votezi intr-o Romanie dintr-un univers paralel.

Daca totusi nu vrei sa astepti pana ce calatoriile interdimensionale vor fi posibile, votul tau INVALID ar putea, ipotetic vorbind, laolalta cu votul la fel de NUL al altor milioane de concetateni (ce optimism!) sa traga un semnal de alarma la adresa clasei politice de cacat care nu ne reprezinta. Ar fi un scenariu ipotetic foarte interesant de urmarit, alegerile ar fi invalidate si s-ar repeta probabil pana cand nemernicii cei mai mari s-ar retrage eventual din partide facand loc unor viitori politicieni cu o mentalitate mai sanatoasa. Bineinteles ca n-o sa se intample asa ceva vreodata, dar merita incercat daca sectia de votare nu e prea departe, si e frumos afara. Macar asa, ca sa ai sentimentul datoriei civice de a trimite un sincer sictir minunatilor tovarasi conducatori.

De fiecare data la alegeri e un procent neglijabil de voturi nule, oameni care desi s-au dus la vot, n-au avut cu cine vota dar au vrut sa dea de-nteles ca doresc sa voteze (mai degraba, sper, decat ca sunt niste retarzi care nu nimeresc cu stampila interiorul chenarului). O campanie bine organizata care sa indemne lumea la un vot frumos si nul ar putea creste procentajul asta la un nivel mai de bagat in seama. Pe mine m-ar interesa la culme cum ar reactiona nemernicii care se asteptau sa fie votati, sa se vada neputinciosi tocmai prin faptul ca sunt ignorati. Sigur, vor fi uitati de istorie, dar pana atunci e prea tarziu si am putea sa-i facem uitati, sa-i mumificam inca din timpul mandatelor lor abjecte. Mai mult decat orice proces penal sau atac mediatic care, acordandu-le importanta, starnesc spirite indobitocite gata sa-i pupincureasca, ignorarea i-ar anonimiza si reduce la tacere.

Asta e cam singurul instrument democratic de care dispunem ca sa ne exprimam dezgustul si ar trebui sa profitam de el daca ne pasa cat de cat. Pentru ca indifierenta e si mai nasoala, si asta n-am zis-o eu.

Asa ca, sper ca n-o sa votati cu cine nu trebuie anu asta.

Happy un-voting!


Update: pentru cine are totusi chef si nervi sa voteze, iaca niste informatii interesante:

The future is now

So it's all nice with all the eco friendly energy and all, but soon all this crap will obviously fail because nobody will afford it except the fancy-pansy, highly developed countries counting, what, 10% of the population?! What about all the rest who won't afford it? Well it's probably gonna be back to that seemingly never ending source of energy: good ol' nuclear power.

It's not to early to plan your future nuclear business, no sireey... say you'd want to forecast an eventual depletion of nuclear resources, or the half life of all that waste that will result from the processing?! Hire a bunch of phisicists (all over the place these days), pice of cake, right?! Well, it's not that simple, that dreaded Y10K is way closer than you'd think...

Gives you somethin' to chew over, doesn't it?

Not a great weekend

To visit Prague:
Or Bucharest:

And I thought these places are geographically kinda close, sheeeesh...

Photoshopping Paris with Google maps

I'm sure you all remember the time when you discovered the wonders of google satellite maps and further on, google earth, how the detail on some of the cities was unbelievable but still with its limitations and somewhat bland colors.But I guess the lack of color detail is probably excused by all the distance to that satellite so it wasn't too bothering.

I recently discovered how great Microsoft's live maps are with this new feature called bird's eye view (you need to use IE and install some activex contol to see that but it's worth it). It actually allows you to see a decent view of streets and buildings because the shots are taken from planes rather than satellites. Away goes that flat uninteresting view of rooftop antennas (for Bucharest and Romanian city viewers in particular) and holes in the road (again Romania, but thank God that level of detail is not so good as to see those - one can only infer their existence from above an experience them while driving, from ground level). You can now see beautiful, high res images of building facades, streets, etc. For Europe try Lisbon and some Italian cities.

But this is not what I actually had to write about. As i was looking at a standard satellite view of Paris on live maps, I noticed it had a considerably higher quality and level of detail than what I was used to see before on google maps (haven't been using that recently). So I thought of making a comparison to check if it's just me or it actually looks better on live maps.

Not a small surprise it was when I noticed that actually the google version looked much better, waaaaay too much better, so good it had to be ... heavily photoshopped.... just take a look yourselves:
Or, maybe it was that day of the year when they put chloride in the Seine and planes spray the trees bright, almost fluorescent green, the special day of the year when Google satellite goes photo-shooting Paris. And because Microsoft is not so well set with the Paris officials, this is what came up on their live maps:
I guess the photoshop fairy hasn't visited this MS maps in some time. To me this looks much more realistic, the google one is just hilariously processed, I mean, comeooon.

Everybody knows how Paris is beautiful, but to have this kind of aggressive subliminal touristic campaign on g-maps? Well, I'd just say consumerism has gone one step too far. Can you imagine hordes of american tourists living the drama of their lives when they see that the crystal clear pool-blue Seine looks just like the heavily polluted river crossing their home town? And then, what happens to all the French, Parisian charm?

I've also found the photoshop paris border line, so here it is:

This place could become a tourist attraction itself. Can you imagine everybody trying to cross the line to have a more colorful life?

Movies ain't what they used to be

With all the political correctness - viewed in a broader sense - that censors most of the western culture's possible offensive parts, it's quite difficult to enjoy a movie that allows the director to display his ideas exactly the way he meant to show them, without any artificial barriers, all in the name of art.

This is what came to my mind after having seen ... ...novecento, a remarkable epic movie depicting generations of the same family of peasants in rural Italy living their anguished life throughout the politically divided environment at the beginning of the century.

The movie that lasts 5h in the uncut version, is molded on the lives of peasants and their fight for their rights and has some very raw scenes that make it so believable and natural. And believe me you can hardly get bored watching this movie. I had to do it in 3 stages because of the lack of time but it is quite captivating.

There were scenes in the movie that would be totally unacceptable in a contemporary movie in the name of political correctness or whatever you might call it, or even suppose the scenes would be allowed, it would be with the price of a very strong advisory rating.

I haven't seen many old movies so far, but i was surprised and bewildered at some of the scenes such as the slaughtering of pigs or a duck hunt that showed the agonizing birds which fell in the water. I bet quite a bunch of animals were seriously harmed during the making of this film, and if you come to think of it, why wouldn't they be if it's in the name of art? Why would we feel better knowing that ducks didn't die in a movie while we thrust our teeth in a juicy roast duck sitting in our comfy chairs? If this isn't petty hypocrisy then what is?

If countless animals get killed for food daily, why wouldn't a couple die on the screen? It doesn't look good? It's better not to know how that salami got to be in the fridge, or maybe that fur coat on the hanger? You betcha! (I haven't converted to be a vegetarian, but i was just thinking about this no-harmed-animals-in-movies policy)

Moving from the animal issue, there were scenes such as menage-a-trois with an epileptic, naked children, de niro naked, and other stuff more or less shocking such as massaging a horse's ass. I think these things spice the movie just at the right moments so you don't get bored watching.

One down side of the movie was the dubbing, because it was quite obvious none of the versions had the original voices (there's a stew of actors of different nationalities in the movie). I had the first 2h in Italian and the rest in English. I'm inclined to say the Italian part sounded better since it all happened there it makes it more believable, however DeNiro and Depardieu's original voices were dubbed. The English version allowed young DeNiro to talk but canceled most of the other characters' original voices which made them sound rather funny.

Another downside is that the director insists too much on the political aspect of the movie, himself being an advocate of communism in his youth. This results in pathetic scenes towards the end of the movie showing how the communist proletariat vanquishes the last trace of 'despotic ' ownership of the bourgeois ruling class. I was a bit disappointed by the movie ending this way, but I warmly recommend it nevertheless, at least to see the surprisingly young DeNiro and Depardieu(same big nose though)

Exploring Europe on dire straits

I ran into the travel blog of Kris Mole, a guy just like you and me who travels around Europe.
So far, nothing out of the ordinary.

The catch is, he's doing it without spending a dime, not because he's cheap or anything, but because he just doesn't carry any. I'd like to think he doesn't believe in money, that there are things more important in life than a bunch of printed papers everyone gets crazy about. He's wondering around Europe, relying on the kindness of people instead, a much more valuable attribute.

By now he might look like a beggar to you, but he's not. He's raising awareness and more importantly, funds, to support cancer research, having been motivated to do so by his aunt who died because of it.

It's a very original way of doing it and I really admire him for having such guts to take on this adventure, that's why I encourage you to support him if you can. This goes especially to my Romanian friends that should check out his posts about Bucharest. I was really surprised to see what a good impression it has made on him :)

And if he gets to inspire any of you to do such crazy things, make sure you tell me about it :p

Ran into this website today that takes you through a 20min crash course of consumerism in the world today and it's impact. It's packed with information and interesting to watch especially if you haven't given much thought to this until now.

There is a lot of optimism in the end which i kind of doubt. If I look at the world today, I'd say there are too little steps taken towards saving the planet and future generations.

But this can be the subject of another topic which i could write in the future.

Cheers!~

EU air passenger rights

Because I've been through some rough times lately in the Vienna airport after having missed a flight because of the company's fault with no compensation whatsoever other than the free flight as soon as possible (12h in my case, and i should be happy because it was relatively little time) I'm going to show you your rights in case you didn't know them. They apply to all airlines operating on EU territory no matter if low cost on not. So don't be shy to request that you get what you should in case you find yourself in the situations described.

I still am not sure what rule should have been applied in my situation, I'm waiting for some answers from skyeurope and EU officials.
Also, for romanian speakers, this website has many useful tips for travelling low cost all around the world. It's worth checkin' out.

Happy flying to y'all this year!

Nu mintiti poporu cu latinoforu...

Tocmai am citit un articol superinteresant in care Neagu Djuvara vorbeste despre origine miticului nostru popor despre care cu totii stim, nu-i asa..., ca este un amestec predominant de romani si daci cu oarece influente din popoarele dimprejur. Ceea ce ne gadila putin orgoliul de a apartine pe linie stramoseasca de o mare civilizatie europeana, romanii.

In anii recenti s-au mai lamurit cat de cat lucrurile cu trecutul "glorios" al tarii in care dovedind cele mai alese dintre virtuti, ne-am aparat glia cu o adanca constiinta nationala inca de pe vremea lui Mihai Viteazul, daca nu a lui Stefan cel Mare... not quite so... dar cred ca stiti deja despre exagerarile astea care au luat un avant infiorator in epoca de aur. Au luat un avant, pentru ca se pare ca anumite parti ale istoriei erau daca nu inflorite, cel putin omise pentru a nu pata imaginea, inca dinaintea comunismului in incercarea intelectualitatii vremii de a crea o origine respectabila a poporului in ochii Europei in care de-abia ne intergam cat de cat de sub turci (cel putin asa am inteles eu din articolul care urmeaza).

Carevasazica, ar fi inca multe de descoperit din trecutul nostru ca si natiune si multe demitizari de efectuat totodata, ceea ce nu inseamna neaparat ca suntem mai putin demni de trecutul nostru pana la urma, pentru ca eu personal cred ca e remarcabil faptul ca am ramas totusi un popor - asa cum e el - in ciuda atator atacuri...

Va invit deci sa va delectati cu articolul si sa-mi spuneti impresiile de dupa. Va simiti lezati in mandria nationalista? Aveti un soc ca atunci cand ati descoperit ca Mos Craciun nu exista (hmm ma intreb daca a fost bine sa mentionez asta...)?

Enjoy

Despre accesibilitate, civilizatie si cat de norocosi suntem

Aseara cand ieseam de la metrou mi s-a intamplat din nou sa vad un nevazator care circula pe cont propriu prin zona, ajutat fiind, la prima impresie, doar de un banal baston.
Cand ma pregateam sa urc scarile rulante el dadea sa urce pe cele obisnuite, si in timp ce urcam am auzit o voce care spunea ce iesire este si, probabil (nu stiu chiar atat de bine ceha cu tot cu lectiile pe care le iau la firma) si faptul ca iesirea are scari rulante, asa ca tipul s-a indreptat spre scarile rulante.

Acum, oricat de bine este dotata statia de metrou banuiesc ca trebuie sa ai si un echilibru foarte bun ca sa te urci pe scarile rulante fara sa vezi nimic. La capat m-am gandit c-ar fi bine sa-l astept si sa-l ajut insa tipul a pasit foarte increzator folosindu-se de baston ca sa simta sfarsitul scarilor.

Iesirea era spre o statie de autobuz unde asteptam si eu, tipul a identificat panoul unde sunt trecute autobuzele si s-a asezat imediat langa el.

In momentul in care a sosit un autobuz, ma asteptam sa intrebe pe cineva ce numar e, insa tipul a scos o mica telecomanda din buzunar iar din autobuz, vocea care anunta statiile si faze din astea, i-a spus ce numar e si pana unde merge.

Eu unul am ramas destul de impresionat de infrastructura pentru persoanele dizabilitate care exista in Praga, unul din motivele pentru care vad destul de multi oameni dizabilitati avand o viata activa.

La inceput chiar ma intrebam daca cehii au asa multe probleme in general, pe cand de fapt problema e ca la noi acesti oameni sunt prizonieri in propriile case, in lipsa oricarei infrastructuri care sa le ofere un cadru mai bun pentru mobilitate.

Si cand exista intentii din astea, sunt implementate complet idiot, gen rampe pentru carucioare in unghi de 45% (poate am exagerat, dar oricum unghi impracticabil) samd...

Iar intamplarea de-aseara m-a facut inca odata recunoscator pentru faptul ca inca am toate simturile in stare de functionare si ca deobicei nu dam 2 bani pe asta. Poate daca am fi constienti de asta si de multe altele nu ne-am mai plange asa mult de toate celelalte neajunsuri care par glume fata de astfel de probleme.

Weekend placut tuturor ;)

Communism day ...

Tomorrow is a national holiday in CZ, the communism day, a reminder of what this meant for the Czech people for over 50 years and a 'don't try this ever again' kind of warning.

I think such an event is of great importance in order to raise awareness in the new generation and to remind the older ones about how things were during those times and maybe help them shake off some old habits and conceptions. As I heard there will be several activities taking place and AIESEC has a schedule for trainees as well.

The fall of the regime was peaceful in CZ with the velvet revolution and as far as I know the country didn't have such harsh times as Romania had and yet they show so much importance to what happened during those 50 years and I congratulate them for doing so.

There are much stronger reasons for Romania to have such a day to remember all the people (most of them young and brave enough to take the streets) who lost their lives in the revolution, instead nobody seems to give a damn about them and what they stood for.

I felt quite ashamed for not having such a commemoration in Romania and what's worse is that it only struck me when I heard about the events that are about to take place tomorrow here in CZ.

I guess we're much more used to forgetting where we come from and taking for granted everything we have now, always wanting more and more. We should never forget what happened then so that we won't make that mistake ever again and also we should be much more grateful for the country we have now and try to make things better.

If not now, in the near future this will be surely forgotten by the new generation, another page in the history book, but still such a recent and painful page.

We should do more to commemorate and shed light on the events that happened.

So, happy non-communist days to you all, try to make the best of them!

The Bridge

Today I ran into a website which I kept browsing for about an hour or more. It definitely caught my attention with the way it was realized, the idea it brought and the most important, the issue it addresses.


It's about making a difference by being creative. So unleash your creative side and contribute a mile or two on the bridge build by people all around the world.

So spend a little time to contribute and think about how you can help build a better world. It's not that you have to move the mountains or anything, but even the smallest consideration will do. Little by little things can change.