Improper Nouns

If you think about it, there is little that is more tightly connected with your identity, your persona than the name you carry.  For most of us this is an inheritance from our parents, and we live with their gift, grudgingly or otherwise, throughout our life.  Some of the braver of us change our names legally, when we think that another moniker would suit our character better.

Happy Independence Day

According to reliable sources, the following congratulation messages have been received by interim President Mihai Ghimpu on the occasion of Moldova's independence day:

Join the dots

Banca de Economii (Moldova's savings bank) has this morning issued a press release in which it requests the Prosecutor General to investigate some loans issued (but not paid back) in the late 1990s, during the time in which the president of the Bank was one Viorel Topa.

The People's Republic of Moldova

We're just over two weeks out from the referendum on reintroducing direct voting for the president of the Republic.  Large parts of the rusophile left have announced that they will boycott the poll.  The official reasons are that (a) they believe the AIE will use the result to avoid calling new parliamentary elections, and (b) a 'parliamentary' system is more democratic than a 'presidential' one.  The unofficial reason for the boycott is that, with Voronin out of play, they don't have a candidate capable of winning the vote.

Merkeltov - Ribvedev

Angela Merkel's grand bargain offered to Russia seemed a little too good to be true when it first came out into the open, and so initially I refrained from commenting on it. It seems to be more than just the figment of a journalist's imagination, however, so merits a closer look.

The Kosovo Decision

The International Court of Justice's ruling that the Kosovan declaration of independence was 'not illegal under international law' has surely given a big boost to separatist movements the world over.  The decision is likely to accelerate the splintering of countries that began with the fall of the Soviet Union 20 years ago.  It will lead to new wars of independence, with the death and suffering that invariably accompanies them.

The Moldovans are Coming!

Over the last week stories have been popping up in several European newspapers regarding Romania's policy of awarding citizenship to those who were stripped of it by occupation in 1940.  I have seen stories in the Ukrainian, British, German and Italian press on this subject, and there may be others.