Dressed up in rags, begging for a penny – that is the image that Ion Rădulescu, also knows as Pisică (Romanian for “cat”) shows to the sympathetic people that give him money. Little do they know that the “poor beggar” is anything but poor: he affords a plasma TV, he has dinner in proper restaurants and goes to get spa treatment on holidays. He earns more than 12.000 Euros a year, which is by far a lot more than a teacher with 20 years in the classroom, a doctor fresh out of med-school or an army colonel. The money he makes allows him to even bribe waiters to let him sleep in the restaurants at night during winter. After a “begging marathon” just before the winter holidays, he took the money he made and spent a week in a fancy resort in Romania, with all inclusive services, among which spa treatment. Now he is back in the streets of Timişoara, raising more money from the people who think him poor.
European MPs From Romania, Champions of Foul Language
Corneliu Vadim Tudor and George Becali, Romanian MPs in the European Parliament, recently caught the attention of the local media, after having used words hard to reproduce or to translate, addressed to state officials or to media representatives. The first to break the Christmas magic with foul language was Vadim Tudor, who, on Tuesday, insulted a woman court bailiff and several police officers who were carrying out a court sentence to evict Vadim’s party from a repossessed building. Among the words used by Vadim Tudor, “bitch” was one of the few that are printable. He also threw a glass of water in the bailiff’s face and used swear words to the police enforcers who were present on the scene.
Asked to comment on Vadim’s behaviour, another European MP from Romania threw an entire range of foul words at the journalist interviewing him. “You are an impostor, not a journalist, you newspaper is a bum (“vagabond”, sic!), you suck my (…)” was only part of Becali’s response to the media inquiry.
Becali and Vadim Tudor have been elected in the European Parliament in 2008, the former being helped in his campaign by the latter. This is not their first use of slander words in public. Vadim is the publisher of “România Mare”, a newspaper specialized in virulent attacks on just about anybody. Becali, owner of “Steaua”, a very popular football club in Romania, has made his fortune from sheep and from real estate businesses. Also known as Gigi Becali, he often uses bad words while being addressed by journalists.
Camera Crews: Romania, Moldova, UK and Lebanon 