|
RRI newsletter subcription
(e-mail address):
|
 |
Archives:
|
|
| MEDIA HEADLINES 02/07/2010 |
| (2010-07-02) |
| Last updated: 2010-07-05 13:20 EET |
The daily Jurnalul National paints a bleak picture of the floods that have devastated eastern Romania, killing 20 and seeing 13,000 people evacuated: ‘160 towns and villages flooded in 22 counties, 3200 homes, 1800 hectares of pasture and almost 15,000 hectare of arable land were affected’.
After days on end when they published dramatic reports sprinkled with desperate statements from stranded locals and rather resigned statements from local authorities, newspapers are now trying to identify the causes of the catastrophes that have become a common occurrence every summer in the last few years. The daily Romania Libera writes that the summer of 2010 is just beginning, and that weathermen say it is going to be unusually rainy. Interior minister Vasile Blaga warned that the flooding could cause damage amounting to as much as 0.6% of the GDP.
Jurnalul National writes that the floods are the result of massive deforestation. According to the daily, the deforestation is, quote ‘the result of greed, ignorance and corruption. Corruption is the attribute of officials and people in power. However, the greed and ignorance are the attributes of the people. Everyone cut down as many trees as they could, both trees they owned, or trees belonging to someone else’, unquote. The newspaper also asks rhetorically: ‘How did Romania get to the point where it has only 27% of its surface forested, less than any country in Europe? How did we get to the point where we have a pace of deforestation faster than in African countries? How did we get to the point where we export annually 17 million cubic meters of timber?’. The daily Adevarul tries to provide an explanation: aside from greed, the catastrophe can also be explained through extreme poverty and fatalism of the victims.
An example is that of a man from Galati who is in his seventies and has now lived through a fourth flood. As he was quoted to say, ‘I’ve been living here 22 years. I lived through four big floods, but this year was like none other, the water took away everything I had’. He added: ‘these shabby houses were built only 300 meters from the river’s edge. People just shrug away when you ask them about that, they can’t afford better houses somewhere else’.
Adevarul concludes that each year the floods bring with them ‘the old pains, fresh tears, and the structural incapability of this nation to learn from the ills of the past’. Meanwhile, Gandul puts up the headline ‘The government moves to the flooded areas’. Led by Prime Minister Emil Boc, ministers spread out through the villages worst hit by the deluge.
The daily adds that, aside from the image campaign and the message that the government stands next to the people, the fact that the prime minister went to the flooded areas is really very useful. As Adevarul puts it: ‘The Romanian authorities still work on the principle that nothing gets done unless the boss is watching, so the presence of the bosses from Bucharest might press some bored and jaded local authorities into doing something’.
|
|
| |
WMA |
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
MP3 |
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
AAC+ |
|
|
48kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
 Historical mascot of
RRI |
| |
© 1999 - 2011 Copyright Radio Romania International |
|
2025-04-03
Print
Listen again